Former senator John Joël Joseph, already serving a life sentence in the United States for his role in the plot to kill President Jovenel Moïse, testified on Friday, October 23, before a federal court in Miami, Juno7 reported, citing journalist Luckson Saint-Vil.

According to that account, Joseph said he organized a meeting between Christian Emmanuel Sanon and Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH). The reports do not give the date or the purpose of the meeting.

Joseph also said Ashkard Pierre helped move Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios to a place he described as the base of Vitelhomme Innocent in Tabarre, with the aim of keeping Palacios from being killed. He said he destroyed his two phones so police could not trace his movements.

The testimony as reported does not by itself establish that Espérance played any role in the assassination, and no response from him or from the RNDDH was published. Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, at his home in Pèlerin, above Pétion-Ville. Joseph was sentenced to life in prison on December 19, 2023.