ANKARA, Turkey – The High Criminal Court of Istanbul has rejected a request for the extradition of Jordanian businessman Samir Nasri Salem Handal to Haiti to stand trial for his alleged involvement in the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
President Moise, who served as head of state from 2017, was gunned down at his private residence overlooking the capital, Port Au Prince.
Haitian police say a group of mercenaries, most Colombians, was behind the attack, which they suspect a Haitian doctor of ordering as part of a plot to become President.
Handal was apprehended while attempting to leave Turkey in November and was detained by Turkish authorities pending an investigation. He is alleged to have provided shelter to the main conspirator of the assassination. Interpol sent out a Red Notice alerting members stating that Handal was wanted, but the notice was later lifted.
During the court proceedings on Monday, Handal’s lawyer criticized the court’s handling of the case and the continued detainment of his client following the lifting of the Interpol arrest warrant. Handal also argued to the judge that he would be killed if he were extradited to Haiti.
“I went to court because of the Interpol decision, but I don’t have an Interpol decision on me at the moment. I sent a letter to the court this morning. I don’t want to be sent back because I will be tortured and killed if I am sent back.
“My red notice decision has been lifted; I have another option: stay in prison. Is there a reason? Because there is no Interpol decision about me. If I was arrested with an Interpol search warrant and now it doesn’t exist, why doesn’t Turkey let me go? I want justice from Turkey,” he said.
In addition to being Haitian and American, Handal also holds Jordanian and Palestinian nationalities through his parents. He had been arrested in Turkey on November 15, 2021, upon arrival on a Turkish Airlines flight from Miami.
He had been accused of renting his house in Florida to Dr. Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian doctor. The latter had been living in Florida for 20 years and was later suspected by the Haitian authorities of being one of those behind the assassination of Moise.
Handal has consistently denied the accusation saying he rented his house to Dr. Sanon to establish a medical practice there and that he had never attended any meeting in this house nor ever heard of a plot except after the assassination of President Moïse in the media.
One of Handal’s lawyers, Tuğçe Duygu Köksal, celebrated the decision, saying, “today, the law has the final word, and Samir Handal’s extradition proceedings resulted in a legal victory.”
In Haiti, the President of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, described the ruling as “a great disappointment.” At the same time, the former minister of foreign affairs, Claude Joseph, said, “the alleged involvement of Samir Handal in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is well documented in the report of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police, the result of impeccable work by our investigators.
“Samir Handal is freed simply because the government of Ariel Henry deliberately produced a botched extradition request that had no chance of succeeding. What could we expect from a government headed by a Prime Minister (allegedly) indexed (implicated) in the assassination of Jovenel Moïse,” he added.
Prime Minister Henry has consistently denied any involvement in the murder of Moise.
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