FORMER HAITIAN FIRST LADY INDICTED IN THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND – WAS SHE IN LOVE WITH THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER CLAUDE JOSEPH?

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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON— The assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse and the ensuing investigations in Haiti and in the United States involved more drama than a Shakespeare’s play. Earlier this week, February 19, 2024, Haitian Judge Walter Wesser Voltaire filed charges against nearly 50 people he said were complicit in the assassination of Jovenel Moise. But what no one expected was that MARTINE MOISE, the former First Lady, would be a culprit, an accomplice in the assassination of her husband.

How did Martine Moise end up indicted for murder? Well, TrueNews investigated, and what is stated in the 172-page indictment is not the only juicy story.

Sometime between 2018 and 2019, Martine Moise wanted out of the marriage; she wanted a divorce, and she was no longer in love with Jovenel. She sent her children to Canada and then left Jovenel.

The couple slept in separate beds; Martine briefly moved to Canada until she was forced to move back to Haiti. The couple had been married for over twenty years, and it was not a shock that the marriage had come to an end; the romance had faded, and the First Lady was looking for something exciting. Then enter the debonair Dr. Claude Joseph, young and vivacious, and Martine was smitten by Joseph, known as “Ti Claud”.

Eventually, Martine returned to Port-Au-Prince from Canada and convinced Jovenel to hire Ti Claud as prime minister. Several people who worked with the former first lady told TrueNews that Martine was a constant visitor to the office of the Prime Minister. “She was really smitten by Dr. Joseph,” said one source who worked with the former prime minister on condition of anonymity.

Despite the love entanglement between Ti Claude and Martine, could this have been enough to cause the assassination of the father of her children, the president of the Republic?

The assassination of Jovenel Moise is ensnared in dramatic ups and downs with several characters. At first, it was Emmanuel Sanon’s ambition to be president that precipitated the assassination with the assistance of a Colombian mercenary. Then, maybe it was a CIA’s covert action designed to eliminate Jovenel for his overtures to Russia. A few weeks before Jovenel’s assassination, he had gone to Turkey to meet high-level officials from the Russian government, and Jovenel was prepared to issue a letter of invitation to Russia to open an embassy in Haiti. This part of the drama sounds somewhat credible, but how do we make sense of the Colombians and Rev. Emmanuel Sanon’s involvement and the complicity of Martine?

If, indeed, Martine was involved and complicit in the murder of her husband, she would have at least been aware of the plan to kill Jovenel before execution, and if she wanted Ti Claude to be president, why kill her husband?

In reviewing the indictment, it seems that Martine is being indicted only to keep her away from running for president. Since the killing of her husband, she has said she wants to run for president; with an indictment, she will be busy defending herself instead of running for president.

Judge Voltaire wrote that Martine had wanted “Ti Claude” to take over after the killing, with conditions to hand over power to her after the provisional period and once the deed was done, according to the order.

CLAUDE JOSEPH

Let’s examine this statement: did Martine have a separate plan with Ti Claud to kill Jovenel, and if she did, why would she be in the house the night of the murder? It seems more convenient for her to be away with her children to avoid subjecting herself and her children to the gruesome murder. Or, if she was part of the conspiracy, was the conspiracy only to arrest Jovenel? One of the defendants who pleaded guilty in Miami Federal Court said the original plan was to kidnap Jovenel and put him on a plane to another country, but the kidnapping plan turned to murder the day of the operation.

What is interesting is that Ariel Henry is not indicted for complicity since there is evidence that he had at least five separate telephone conversations with one of the principal defendants the day leading to the assassination and a few minutes after the killing. It seems that Ariel Henry would be more interested in eliminating Jovenel than Martine.

Others named for prosecution in Voltaire’s February 19 order run the gamut of personnel serving in security, cabinet, and advisory capacities, such as Renald Lubérice, Dimitri Hérard, and Léon Charles. They face an array of offenses that include conspiracy, armed robbery, terrorism, and complicity, aiding and abetting murder.

However, what is unclear is the involvement of all the parties, the coordination, and the plan. Nowhere in the report does it suggest that Martine knew of the plan allegedly conceived by Emmanuel Sanon. The basis for indicting Martine seems to depend on the fact that she was not killed and that she reportedly lied about hiding under a bed that “a big rat could not fit under.”

As with everything in Haiti, the impossible becomes possible, and the possible becomes impossible. We will be waiting for the trial and the evidence of Martine’s involvement in this gruesome murder.