A man from Quebec has been sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to incite an armed revolution to overthrow the government of Haiti. Gérald Nicolas, 54, was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Louis Dionne at the Quebec City courthouse. Following an investigation by the RCMP, Nicolas was found guilty by a jury on three counts in March.
According to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, Nicolas left Canada in 2020 and 2021 to support a terrorist activity against the Haitian government led by former president Jovenel Moïse. During the trial, it was revealed that he traveled to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to recruit collaborators, acquire weapons, and leased land near the Haitian border to establish a base of operations.
Nicolas, a resident of Lévis, Quebec, faced charges in 2022 for leaving Canada to facilitate a terrorist activity, facilitating a terrorist activity, and providing property for terrorist purposes. The first two charges carried a maximum sentence of 14 years each, while the third charge had a maximum sentence of 10 years.
It is important to note that the RCMP clarified that Nicolas’s case was not linked to the assassination of President Moïse in July 2021. George Dolhai, the director of public prosecutions, emphasized that this case exposes a conspiracy to destabilize a foreign government, stating that individuals engaging in such actions will be held accountable, whether in Canada or abroad.
