Trial to begin with the former scope of the city of Haiti for positions that he lied about the abuse of rights to obtain residence

In 2007, prosecutors said, he directed a group of his allies to the house of a political opponent, where he and his associates fired and killed the younger brother of the opponent, then broke his skull with a rock.

Prosecutors also claim that in 2008, Viliena and his allies were armed with weapons, machetes, selections and shit to close a community radio station to which he opposed. The authorities said he stepped on the gun and hit a man and ordered an associate to shoot and kill the man and another person.

Both survived, but one of the men lost a leg and the other was blinded in one eye.

Viliena was considered responsible for an American jury in a civil trial in 2023 in the murder and the two murder attempts and evaluated $ 15.5 million in compensatory and punitive damage.

The lawsuit was filed by the Justice and Responsibility Center based in San Francisco on behalf of David Boniface, the Judgers Ysemé and Nissage Martyr in Boston in 2017. Nissage Martyr died and his son, Nissandère Martyr, replaced him as a plaintiff.

The lawsuit was filed by virtue of the Law of Protection of Victims of Torture of 1991, which allows demands to be presented in the United States against foreign officials for accusations of irregularities in their homeland if all legal roads in their country have been exhausted.

The Center also asked the State Department, the United States Embassy in Haiti and the Inter -American Court of Human Rights to work with the Haiti government to guarantee the safety of its clients and relatives, which have been subjected to retaliation and intimidation.

Jason Benzaken, Villena’s main lawyer, said his client now “has the opportunity to present evidence of his innocence.”

“Lord. Viliena is innocent of the charges against him and we expect the opportunity to prove this,” said Benzaken.

Boniface, Ysemé and Martyr live in the hiding place and said in statements on Wednesday that although they are happy with the arrest of Viliena, they are concerned about their families.

Martyr’s mother and sisters still live in Les Irois.