A Florida doctor who has been tied to the recent brutal assignation of the Haitian President says it was his mission to save his beloved country from hell.

Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 62, a prominent doctor in Florida’s burgeoning Haitian community, was also an evangelical preacher. Sanon, who has been “tied to” the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, says he believed he was on “a mission to save Haiti from hell,” according to associates.

Haitian police have accused Sanon of plotting with the heavily armed hit squad as part of his longstanding dream to take charge of the impoverished nation.

The doctor turned pastor has been trying to achieve “salvation” for the island nation for at least a decade when Sanon posted a 2011 YouTube video titled “Leadership for Haiti,” in which he vowed that “there is a hope coming in” with his plans to run for election.

However, friends of the Florida-based doctor insisted to the Associated Press that he must have been duped and would never have taken part had he known Moïse was to be killed in the deadly attack that also critically injured the first lady.

“I guarantee you that,” one close associate in Florida told the AP.

“This was supposed to be a mission to save Haiti from hell, with support from the US government.”

Sanon is a licensed physician in Haiti, but not in the US, the friend said, saying he is instead a devoted evangelical Christian pastor.

Sanon “is completely gullible,” the associate added. “He thinks God is going to save everything.”

“I know the character of the man,” said the Rev. Larry Caldwell, a Florida pastor who worked with Sanon setting up churches and medical clinics in Haiti from 2000 to 2010. 

“You take a man like that, and you’re then going to say he participated in a brutal crime of murder, knowing that being associated with that would send him to the pits of hell?

“If there was one man who would be willing to stand in the breach to help his country, it would be Christian.”

Economist Parnell Duverger told the Washington Post he has known Sanon since 2016 and found him “sincere about transforming Haiti into a better economy and a better society.”

When he learned of Sanon’s arrest, he wrote and circulated a letter defending him as “a good doctor who also doubles up as a pastor and leader of a vast network of about 300 Christian churches throughout the United States.”

He also told the paper he doesn’t believe the government’s allegations. “Politics has become a brutal sport in that country, and you’d be surprised how fast you can be a victim of character assassination,” Duverger said.

What is the Pastor’s Connection to the Crime?

Haiti’s National Police chief, Léon Charles, said his officers found a hat with the logo of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence, among other things, in Sanon’s house in Haiti.

Sanon was also linked to the security firm believed to have recruited the killers, who told police they thought they were being hired to protect Sanon before the orders were switched to arrest Moïse.

Charles said that after Moïse was killed, one suspect called Sanon, who then got in touch with two people believed to be masterminds of the plot. He did not identify the masterminds or say if police know who they are.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has just announced the appointment of a special envoy to help coordinate U.S. assistance and promote peace in Haiti following the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise earlier this month.

Daniel Foote, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, was appointed to the role by the State Department.

“The Department congratulates Special Envoy Foote as he takes on his new role and thanks him for his continued service to his country,” the State Department said in a statement.