Turkey Rejects Request to Extradite Haiti Assassination Suspect

A man touches the portrait of the late Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, July 22, 2021. (AP)
A man touches the portrait of the late Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, July 22, 2021. (AP)
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Turkey Rejects Request to Extradite Haiti Assassination Suspect

A man touches the portrait of the late Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, July 22, 2021. (AP)
A man touches the portrait of the late Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, July 22, 2021. (AP)

A Turkish court rejected on Monday a request to extradite a man wanted by Haiti over his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Moise, the 53-year-old former businessman who took office in 2017, was shot dead in July 2021 at his private residence and his wife was wounded in the attack.

A group of Colombian mercenaries emerged as the main suspects though nobody has been convicted in connection with the case.

Businessman Samir Handal, a Jordanian national, was detained on an Interpol red notice as he transited Turkey on the way from the United States to Jordan last November, but his lawyers said the red notice was later lifted upon their request.

Handal and his lawyers have said the suspect only rented a house to Emmanuel Sanon, a suspected mastermind of the assassination, but that Handal did not know about the plans.

A report in August by Haiti’s police said Handal had hosted “meetings of a political character” at his Port-au-Prince home that included Sanon’s participation.

Handal, who has been attending hearings via video link from a prison in Ankara where he has been held for eight months, cried and threw his hands up in the air as the judges read the verdict and ruled to release him.

Handal had said he was innocent and that the red notice was lifted.

The lawyers had said Handal should not be extradited because he would be subject to hard labor in Haiti and that he may be tortured or die in prison due to the severe conditions.

They also emphasized the political uncertainty in the country, saying Turkey’s foreign ministry had warned last week against travel to Haiti citing increasing crime and security concerns.



US Proposes Ukraine UN Text Omitting Mention of Occupied Territory, Say Diplomats

 Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Proposes Ukraine UN Text Omitting Mention of Occupied Territory, Say Diplomats

 Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)

The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.

Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.

It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies—countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.

The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv’s “territorial integrity.”

The text also repeats the UN General Assembly’s previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favor.

Washington’s text, seen by AFP, calls for a “swift end to the conflict” without mentioning Kyiv’s territorial integrity and was welcomed by Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, as “a good move” but stressed that it did not address the “roots” of the conflict.

“The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace,” Rubio said in a statement Friday, without commenting in detail on the contents of the proposed resolution.

In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.

Instead, the 65-word text begins by “mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia–Ukraine conflict.”

It then continues by “reiterating” that the United Nations’ purpose is the maintenance of “international peace and security”—without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.

France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU’s only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment “for the moment.”

“A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine’s territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

“I think even a lot of states that favor an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter.”