February 22, 2026
During testimony in Miami, former Haitian judge Jean Roger Noelcius admitted under oath that he signed an illegal arrest warrant targeting President Jovenel Moïse, acknowledging that he had “no authority to remove a sitting head of state.” He stated that the document, although sealed and backdated, should never have existed.
Noelcius specified that the execution of any warrant falls exclusively under the authority of the Haitian National Police, excluding any intervention by private individuals or foreigners. “I have nothing to do with this situation,” he declared in Creole through an interpreter, explicitly recognizing the illegality of his act.
The warrant, signed in January 2021 but backdated to February 2019, was used as justification during the failed coup attempt of February 7, 2021, and later during the July 7, 2021 attack. Several suspects claimed they had come to arrest the president, also relying on correspondence addressed to former U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison, amid controversy over the end of the presidential term.
Noelcius accused attorney Mario Beauvoir of pressuring him to sign the document, leading him to believe it was supported by diplomatic interests seeking to “save the country.” He acknowledged that “normal procedures had not been respected” and that the warrant was supposedly intended to remain “symbolic.”
Questioned by the federal prosecutor, the former judge denied that the warrant authorized a kidnapping, assassination, or its execution by foreigners, answering “No” to each question. Also present in the courtroom was Antonio Intriago, head of CTU Security, mentioned in the case.
After the warrant circulated on social media, Noelcius said he panicked, fled Haiti, and sought refuge in Canada, where he now works night shifts in a factory. “They used me like a puppet,” he stated, concluding bitterly: “Today, my career as a judge is destroyed,” according to remarks reported by the Miami Herald.
