KINGSTON, Jamaica,- The family members of former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph, who appeared in a United States court last week, charged with the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise last year, are to be deported from Jamaica.
Joseph was extradited from Jamaica last weekend and now the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court has ordered that his wife, Edume, 38, and her two sons, Schopenhauer, 17, and a nine-year-old boy be deported to Haiti.
Their lawyer Donahue Martin, had applied for refugee status but it was denied.
Joseph and his family had fled to Jamaica and was charged with illegally entering the Caribbean Island by boat after they were discovered in the southern parish of St. Elizabeth in January.
In February, Martin made an application for refugee status to the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) for Edume and their two sons, arguing that the family fled Haiti and entered Jamaica illegally over fear of being killed by angry citizens in Haiti who believe they were involved in President Moïse’s murder and the attempted murder of his wife. But the application was denied.
Martin had promised to appeal the ruling, but he told the court on Monday that he was abandoning the appeal as the matter would not have been heard before this court date.
He, however, asked the court to admonish and discharge the charge against his clients especially since they would have spent four months in custody.
Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague granted the request of the attorney and admonished and discharged the illegal entry charges against the three.
The former Haitian senator has been charged with the same offenses as two previous defendants who were brought to Miami earlier this year in connection with the assassination of Moise at his private residence overlooking the capital Port au Prince.
CMC/
