A former Haitian mayor has been arrested in the USA on three costs of visa fraud, a day after a court docket ordered him to pay $15.5m for his alleged position within the violent persecution of his political rivals.

Jean Morose Viliena, 50, is anticipated to seem earlier than a federal court docket in Boston, Massachusetts, shortly after being detained on immigration-related costs on Wednesday. He faces as much as 10 years in jail and a fantastic of $250,000.

In a press release, the US Lawyer’s Workplace denounced the “horrific violence” the previous mayor had dedicated in his house nation of Haiti as chief of the commune of Les Irois, which is positioned on the island’s southwestern peninsula.

“Our nation presents safety, help and asylum to those that are persecuted,” US Lawyer Rachael Rollins stated within the press launch. “Those that perpetrate acts of violence and hurt of their nations — after which allegedly lie about their conduct to US immigration officers — are usually not welcome right here.”

Prosecutors accuse Viliena of mendacity to safe a visa into the US by concealing his violent previous.

His visa utility required that he affirm he had not “ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings” in Haiti. Viliena allegedly checked the field saying he had not and later swore earlier than a consular officer that his statements on the appliance have been correct, one thing prosecutors deny.

As a substitute, they hyperlink him to a marketing campaign of persecution orchestrated via Korega, a political group in Haiti accused of utilizing threats and violence to advertise its pursuits and candidates.

Throughout his tenure as mayor, from about 2006 to 2010, prosecutors say Viliena “personally supervised” armed teams and Korega militia members to implement his insurance policies and suppress any opposition.

Wednesday’s assertion from prosecutors outlines two incidents — the primary round July 2007, when a witness spoke out in court docket about an assault perpetrated in opposition to his neighbour and credited to Viliena.

That witness, David Boniface, stated Viliena threatened him after the court docket continuing. “He advised me he would take care of me later,” Boniface advised the information station WBUR in 2017.

That evening, Viliena allegedly led a gaggle of armed assailants to Boniface’s house. However Boniface was not there. As a substitute, Viliena and his associates grabbed Boniface’s youthful brother, Ecclesiaste, and pulled him into the road the place a gaggle of bystanders might see, in line with the US Lawyer’s Workplace.

“They shot him within the head and afterwards sliced him up with machetes,” Boniface advised WBUR. “Then they used an enormous rock to smash his head.”

The second incident outlined within the US Lawyer’s Workplace report began round March 2008, with the institution of a group radio station in Les Irois.

“Viliena opposed institution of the radio station,” the report defined. To close the station down, the report alleges that Viliena plotted an assault on the constructing early the subsequent month.

“Viliena distributed firearms to the Korega militia members, a few of whom additionally carried machetes, picks and sledgehammers,” the report stated.

On the day of the assault, one sufferer was allegedly pistol-whipped and crushed by Viliena. When he tried to flee, Viliena ordered he be shot and killed, in line with the report. The sufferer’s wounds have been so extreme his leg needed to be amputated.

A second sufferer recognized within the US Lawyer’s Workplace report described being shot within the face on Viliena’s orders, leaving him completely blind in a single eye.

These two victims, Nissage Martyr and Juders Yseme, later joined Boniface in pursuing a civil go well with in opposition to Viliena within the US federal court docket, underneath the 1991 Torture Sufferer Safety Act. That regulation permits victims to hunt damages in opposition to overseas officers accused of torture and extrajudicial killings, as long as all authorized avenues of their house nations have been exhausted.

Prosecutors on Wednesday stated Viliena was given everlasting resident standing within the US beginning in 2008, which he used to then journey forwards and backwards between Haiti.

“That this defendant, a former mayor in Haiti, is alleged to have personally dedicated or ordered the maiming, hurt, humiliation or dying of his adversaries after which blatantly deceived our nation to hunt refuge right here isn’t solely unacceptable, it’s a crime,” Rollins, the US lawyer, stated.