BOSTON (AP) — A former Haitian mayor was criminally billed Wednesday with lying on his application to turn into a lawful resident of the U.S., just one particular working day soon after he was located liable for a killing and two attempted slayings in his homeland.
Jean Morose Viliena, 50, was indicted on three counts of visa fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s place of work in Boston. Conviction on the cost carries a sentence of up to 10 several years in prison.
“Getting lawful entry into our country is a privilege, not a right,” U.S. Legal professional Rachael Rollins mentioned in a assertion. “Our country offers safety, guidance and asylum to those who are persecuted. Persons that perpetrate functions of violence and damage — and then allegedly lie about their conduct to U.S. immigration officers — in their nations around the world are not welcome right here.”
An e-mail searching for remark was despatched to Viliena’s lawyer.
Viliena went to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in June 2008 to implement for a visa that would get him entry to the U.S., federal prosecutors said.
When asked on the application type whether he was excluded from admission to the U.S. for acquiring “purchased, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other functions of violence against the Haitian persons,” he said he was not, prosecutors stated.
He then swore that his software was real and signed it, authorities stated. The visa was authorised the subsequent working day. He moved to the U.S. in July 2008 and was granted a Lasting Resident Card, also regarded as a green card.
Viliena has been living in Malden, just north of Boston, authorities stated.
But federal prosecutors allege that though mayor of the town of Les Irois — a neighborhood of about 22,000 on Haiti’s western suggestion — Viliena was involved in acts of violence in opposition to political foes.
In 2007, prosecutors reported, he led a team of his allies to the home of a political opponent, the place he and his associates shot and killed the opponent’s youthful brother, then smashed his cranium with a rock.
Prosecutors also allege that in 2008, Viliena and his allies went armed with guns, machetes, picks and sledgehammers to a local community radio station that he opposed to shut it down. He allegedly pistol-whipped and punched a person and requested an associate to shoot and get rid of the man and just one other person.
Equally survived, but 1 of the adult men misplaced a leg and the other was blinded in just one eye.
Viliena was discovered liable by an American jury in a civil demo on Tuesday for his part in the killing and the two attempted killings and assessed $15.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The suit was submitted by the San Francisco-primarily based Centre for Justice and Accountability on behalf of David Boniface, Juders Ysemé and Nissage Martyr in Boston in 2017. Nissage Martyr died, and his son, Nissandère Martyr, changed him as a plaintiff.
The match was filed beneath the Torture Sufferer Security Act of 1991, which allows lawsuits to be filed in the U.S. versus foreign officers who allegedly committed wrongdoing in their homeland if all authorized avenues in their region have been fatigued.
“The Center for Justice and Accountability welcomes motion by the Justice Section but calls for human rights felony fees to be introduced presented the strong evidence presented in opposition to Viliena for torture and other abuses in the course of the civil trial,” the heart said in a statement Wednesday.
The centre also identified as on the Condition Section, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, and the Inter-American Court of Human Legal rights to get the job done with the authorities of Haiti to guarantee the protection of their clientele and loved ones associates, who have been subjected to retaliation and intimidation.
Boniface, Ysemé and Martyr continue to live in hiding and claimed in statements Wednesday that though delighted with Viliena’s arrest, they are anxious about their households.
Martyr’s mother and sisters nevertheless stay in Les Irois.
“His associates in Les Irois have reported that if Jean Morose Viliena is arrested, what they have accomplished prior to will be almost nothing as opposed to what they will do now,” Martyr reported in a assertion that was translated from Haitian Creole into English. “They said they will burn off the metropolis of Les Irois and the households of the men and women who sought justice.”
