Haiti Place Haitian drug trafficker has sentence slashed for cooperation

News Information

  • NEWS_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
  • NEWS_POSTED_ON: Apr 22, 2015
  • Views : 685
  • Category : Haiti News
  • Description : US | Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:46pm EDT
    MIAMI | BY DAVID ADAMS
  • Location : Miami, FL, United States

Overview

  • (Reuters) - A convicted Haitian drug trafficker whose allegations of government corruption contributed to the ouster of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, is set to be released from prison after his 27-year sentence was cut in half, his lawyer said on Monday.

    A federal judge in Miami granted the sentence reduction on Friday after the U.S. attorney's office said Beaudouin 'Jacques' Ketant had provided valuable assistance as a witness in the prosecutions of drug-related cases involving Haitian government officials.

    "Jacques helped procure the indictment and conviction of just about every important corrupt official in the Aristide government," said his lawyer Ruben Oliva.

    At his own sentencing in February 2004 Ketant famously accused Aristide of being a drug lord who controlled Colombian cartel cocaine shipments passing through Haiti.

    Days later Aristide was overthrown by armed rebels and bundled out of the country on a U.S. government jet.

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