Haitian gang leader Joly Germine gets life sentence for kidnapping 16 U.S. Christian missionaries

Self-described King of the deadly Haitian 400 Mawozo gang, Joly ‘Yonyon’ Germine, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole by a United States court after being found guilty of the 2021 kidnapping of American missionaries in Haiti.

This came almost eight months after a jury in the District of Columbia voted to convict Mr Germine on 17 counts related to hostage taking for orchestrating the abduction of 16 Americans, including five children, which he and his group held hostage for 62 days.

According to the Department of Justice, the victims were part of a missionary organisation, Christian Aid Ministries, in Haiti when they were taken hostage on their way back from working at an orphanage in October 2021, leading the gang to demand $17 million for their release or they would kill them.

After releasing two hostages in November, the gang set free three more prisoners, including a six-year-old child, in December following the payment of $350,000 ransom.

However, on the 62nd day, the remaining hostages managed to escape in the middle of the night while their captors were distracted.

Months-long investigation by the FBI led to the identification of Mr Germine, who had already been behind bars in Haiti since 2014, as the mastermind of the abduction as part of an elaborate plan to force the United States and the Haitian authorities into a deal involving his release and that of other prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

Meanwhile, in May 2022, the Haitian authorities transferred the convict into U.S. government custody following an extradition request. His trial began in May this year, and he was eventually convicted after 10 days of proceedings at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Delivering his judgment on Wednesday, Judge John Bates sentenced Mr Germine to life in prison without the possibility of supervised release. He also ordered him to pay a $1,700 fine.

This was the latest conviction of Mr Germine after he was first sentenced to 35 years in federal prison in June 2024 after he pleaded guilty to his role in a gun trafficking conspiracy that smuggled firearms to Haiti in violation of U.S. export laws and the laundering of the gang’s funds derived from ransoms paid for other U.S. hostage victims.

“The missionary group included 12 adults and five young children, including a six-year-old, a three-year-old, and an eight-month-old. Sixteen of the victims were U.S. citizens from Christian Aid Ministries,” said U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro. “This sentencing makes clear that Germine’s scheme to win freedom for himself by using Christians as pawns backfired.”