Former Haiti mayor who lied about killing opponents is sentenced to 9 years in U.S.
The former mayor of a small rural village in Haiti, accused of torturing and killing opponents in his homeland, was sentenced Friday in a Massachusetts federal court to nine years in prison for lying about the atrocities in order to obtain a U.S. green card.
Jean Morose Viliena, 53, who served as mayor of Les Irois, in the country's Grand'Anse region, had previously been ordered by a federal court in Boston to pay $15.5 million in damages after being found guilty in a civil case of torture, extrajudicial killings, attempted killing and arson.
On Friday Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the District of Massachusetts sentenced him to do time in prison, plus three years of supervised release, after a federal jury in March convicted him of three counts of visa fraud to obtain his permanent resident or green card. After completely his sentence, Viliena is expected to be deported to Haiti, which is routine for foreign nationals convicted of crimes in the US.
Prosecutors said that when Viliena, already two years into his mayoral term, presented himself at the U.S. Embassy Consular Office in Port-au-Prince in 2008 to apply for a U.S. visa, he falsely responded 'no' to a question about whether he was 'a member of any class of individuals excluded from admission into the United States, including those who have 'ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other acts of violence against the Haitian people.' That response allowed him to be granted the visa, which he used to visit the U.S. before deciding to settle in the Boston area.
READ ME: Boston bus driver and former mayor in Haiti sued for human rights abuses in U.S. court
Two months before his appointment at the U.S. embassy, Viliena and his associates had carried out an attack against an opposition radio station in Les Irois. Viliena, at the time the mayor, and his political associates beat a student during the attack and when the student tried to flee, a bullet struck his face, leaving him permanently blind in one eye.
'According to multiple witnesses' testimony, Viliena mobilized armed members of his staff and supporters to forcibly shut down the radio station and seize its broadcasting equipment,' the U.S. Justice Department said Friday in a statement announcing the sentencing. 'Viliena distributed firearms to his men, some of whom also carried machetes and picks. According to the evidence presented at trial, during this incident, Viliena beat one man and ordered an associate to shoot him when he tried to flee. As a result, the man's leg was later amputated above the knee.'
Viliena first became mayor in December 2006 and served until February 2010. He returned to the office in 2012 as an appointee of then President Michel Martelly despite many questions around his appointment. At the time, United Nations staff flagged the appointment due to a murder conviction in Haitian courts against Viliena, but their concerns were ignored by Haitian authorities.
As both a candidate and mayor, Viliena was backed by Korega, a political machine that used armed violence to exert power throughout the southwestern region of Haiti. Viliena personally supervised his mayoral staff and other armed supporters aligned with Korega and directed them to engage in armed violence to quash opposition to his authority, U.S. authorities said, citing evidence presented during trial.
In addition to the radio station attack, witnesses testified about another brutal incident on July 27, 2007, when Viliena violently retaliated against an activist who had previously spoken at a judicial proceeding on behalf of a neighbor whom Viliena had assaulted. In an of reprisal that evening, Viliena led an armed group to the activist's home, where he and his associates shot and killed the activist's younger brother and then smashed the brother's skull with a large rock before a crowd of bystanders.
'His lies to U.S. immigration authorities allowed him to unlawfully enter this country and obtain lawful permanent resident status,' said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division.
Viliena's past eventually caught up with him in 2017 after three of his victims filed suit against him with help from San Francisco-based Center for Justice & Accountability and the multinational Dentons law firm.
By then, he had obtained his green card and had built a comfortable home as an Uber and bus driver. He also had raised a U.S.-born son.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said while Viliena's victims were forced to live with the pain of his human rights abuses, he was able to build a life in the United States 'by burying the truth about his violent past — a past marked by by political persecution, bloodshed and the silencing of dissent in Haiti.
'For more than a decade, he lived freely and comfortably in this country while the victims of his brutality lived in fear, exile and pain. Today's sentence brings a measure of justice for the lives he shattered and sends a clear message: the United States will not be a safe haven for human rights abusers.,' Foley added. 'Lying to gain entry into this country and then lying again under oath to avoid accountability strikes at the heart of our immigration and legal systems. '
Both said Viliena's conviction serves as a reminders to those who commit violent crimes in their home countries: The U.S. will not be a refuge, and those who carry out human rights abusers and lie take refuge here will be investigated and prosecuted.
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