Turkey frees Palestinian man in Haiti assassination saga
A Palestinian man suspected of involvement in the slaying of Haiti’s president last year has left Turkey after winning a protracted legal battle over his detention in the country.
A Palestinian man held in Turkey for his alleged role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was allowed to fly home to the United States on Aug. 3, ending a nine-month legal saga that saw the rejection of his extradition to Haiti in what has become a complex, international manhunt for the assassins.
Samir Handal, a businessman who holds Palestinian, Jordanian and Haitian citizenships as well as a Green Card that has allowed him to live in the United States for 22 years, remained behind bars in Turkey even after Interpol suspended a red notice for his arrest earlier this year. In a further twist, a bureaucratic muddle kept the 64-year-old from leaving Turkey after an Istanbul court rejected Haiti’s extradition request in early July.
