The retired Colombian soldier charged in the United States for his alleged participation in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, has pleaded not guilty to the crimes with which he is charged, his lawyer announced Friday in Miami.
Accused by the American justice of having participated in the “conspiracy to kidnap or assassinate” Jovenel Moïse, Mario Palacios “will plead not guilty“, said Alfredo Izaguirre at the exit of the Miami court where the case is being tried.
Mario Palacios
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The Haitian president was shot dead on the night of July 6 to 7, 2021 in his private residence in Port-au-Prince, a commando made up of Colombians being suspected.
Mario Palacios is suspected of being one of the five armed men who entered the room where the leader was killed.
Arrested in October in Jamaica, he could not be extradited to Haiti for lack of sufficient evidence provided by the authorities of Port-au-Prince.
He was then arrested again on January 3 in Panama, during a stopover on a flight from Jamaica, and extradited to the United States.
American law is applied in this case because the plan to kill the Haitian president would have been partly organized on American soil, in Florida, by American-Haitian nationals.
Mario Palacios faces life imprisonment.
Another suspect was charged on January 20 by American justice in this case: the Haitian-Chilean national Rodolphe Jaar, 49, accused of complicity in murder. He admitted in a December interview with US police to supplying the commando with weapons and ammunition.
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