On Wednesday, a former Haitian mayor was arrested on U.S. visa fraud charges, a day after a jury ordered him to pay $15.5 million in retaliation for allegations that he led a brutal campaign to kill and torture political opponents.
According to federal prosecutors in Boston, Jean Morose Viliena, 50, obtained an illegal green card allowing him to live permanently in the United States by falsely claiming he did not order or carry out extrajudicial and political killings in Haiti.
Prosecutors claimed that after being elected to a four-year term as mayor of Les Irois, Haiti, in December 2006, he personally committed or ordered the maiming, harm, humiliation, or death of his opponents.
In 2008, he was able to obtain a visa. He now works as a truck driver in Malden, Massachusetts. The lawyers for Viliena did not respond to requests for comment.
The indictment came a day after a federal jury in Boston ordered him to pay $15.5 million in damages in a lawsuit filed by three Haitian citizens, David Boniface, Juders Yseme, and Nissage Martyr, who accused Viliena of persecuting them or their relatives.
The case shed light on the widespread violence that has afflicted Haiti, and Wednesday’s indictment mirrored the allegations made against Viliena in the lawsuit.
According to the plaintiffs, Viliena led a group of armed men to Boniface’s home in 2007 who beat and killed his brother and later mobilized a group in 2008 who beat and killed Martyr and Yseme at a community radio station.
Martyr lost a limb, and Yseme became blind in one eye. Martyr died in 2017 shortly after filing his lawsuit.
“The atrocities alleged here – extrajudicial torture, murder, and attempted murder of multiple people – are difficult to comprehend,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, Massachusetts’ top federal prosecutor, in a statement.
The Center for Justice and Accountability, which represents the men, welcomed Viliena’s arrest while also calling for human rights charges to be brought, citing “strong evidence of torture and other abuses.”
