Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez should be extradited to the US to face drug trafficking and weapons charges, a Honduran judge ruled on Wednesday.
The Honduran Supreme Court of Justice wrote on Twitter that the judge had granted a US extradition request.
US prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Hernandez in the past few years of funding his political rise with profits from drug traffickers in exchange for protecting their shipments.
Photo: AFP
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Former Honduran first lady Ana Garcia told local journalists while leaving the court that she was confident the truth would eventually come out and her husband would be exonerated.
“I regret that this happens to someone who has been an ally” of the US, Garcia said. “I ask myself, from this point on who else will want to work to combat drug trafficking in any country of the region or Honduras. If today they do this to the one who put himself out there, what can we expect?”
Photo: Reuters
Before the decision was announced, court spokesman Melvin Duarte said that during a hearing earlier in the day, Hernandez addressed the court.
“In general terms, he argued about the motives that have led to this extradition process against him, which he and his wife have said publicly,” Duarte said.
Hernandez has said that statements against him have been made by drug traffickers extradited by his government who wanted to seek revenge against him.
He denies having any ties to drug traffickers.
He can appeal the extradition decision.
“We still have an appeal that must be examined,” said Ivan Martinez, one of Hernandez’s lawyers. “We have three days to analyze the decision taken today and make our case in line with law.”
During the hearing, the judge presented a document sent by the US Department of Justice through the US embassy in Tegucigalpa that laid out the charges against Hernandez.
Hernandez’s lawyers also presented at least 20 pieces of evidence in his defense.
Hernandez left office in January at the conclusion of his second term.
The judge had more time to reach a decision, but in 32 previous extradition cases the decision came in less than a week.
All of those decisions were for extradition.
Criminal lawyer German Licona said before the announcement that if the judge ruled for extradition, Hernandez could appeal to the full Supreme Court.
Hernandez was arrested at his home on Feb. 15 at the request of the US government.
The arrest came less than three weeks after Hernandez left office and followed years of allegations by US prosecutors of his alleged links to drug traffickers.
His brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison on drugs and weapons charges in March last year.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver