Juan Orlando Hernandez is needed in america on drug trafficking and firearms expenses, which he has denied.
The highest court docket in Honduras has backed the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to america, the place he's wished on drug trafficking and firearms expenses.
The Honduras Supreme Courtroom on Monday rejected an attraction by Hernandez, 53, following a choose’s March 16 determination to just accept a US extradition request, stated judiciary spokesman Melvin Duarte.
Hernandez, who held workplace from 2014 to 2022 and has denied all the fees towards him, might face a life sentence if convicted.
On Monday, Felix Avila, one among Hernandez’s legal professionals, stated “it is a determination by the Supreme Courtroom and the truth that we don’t agree with it doesn't imply it's unlawful”.
US authorities have accused Hernandez, who was arrested in Honduras in mid-February following an extradition request by the Courtroom of the Southern District of New York, of collaborating in a drug-trafficking scheme.
They are saying Hernandez, who was changed by the nation’s first-ever feminine president, Xiomara Castro, in late January, facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tonnes of medicine – primarily from Colombia and Venezuela – to the US through Honduras since 2004.
US prosecutors have alleged he acquired tens of millions of dollars from drug traffickers for defense, together with from Mexican narco-kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
He faces three expenses: conspiracy to import a managed substance into america; utilizing or carrying firearms together with machine weapons; and conspiracy to make use of or carry firearms.
On the primary cost, the Supreme Courtroom’s 15 magistrates voted unanimously in favour of extradition. For the 2 firearms-related expenses, the vote was 13 for and two towards.
Many of the allegations towards Hernandez emerged in two trials in New York — these of Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, the president’s brother and himself a former Honduran congressman, and Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez.
Each males have been a part of a sprawling drug trafficking case filed in 2015 and each got life sentences. Prosecutors labelled Hernandez a “co-conspirator” in the identical case.
The crux of prosecutors’ accusations is that Hernandez used bribes and help from drug traffickers to gasoline his political rise from a congressman representing rural Lempira in western Honduras to president of the Nationwide Congress after which two consecutive presidential phrases.
In trade, traffickers allegedly have been allowed to function unencumbered, acquired data that helped them keep away from authorities and typically even had safety forces of their service.
Hernandez has been in custody since mid-February when he was arrested after a dramatic stakeout that noticed him holed up in his residence surrounded by police. He emerged hours later, pledging to cooperate with authorities.
In a letter revealed on Monday, Hernandez maintained that he's harmless and stated he's the “sufferer of revenge and conspiracy”.
Hernandez claims that drug traffickers he helped extradite to the US have tried to get again at him by implicating him within the commerce. “Three life sentences might make me a dwelling useless,” stated Hernandez, who admitted it was “painful” to be separated from his family members.
His spouse Ana Garcia, a lawyer, joined a bunch of a few dozen protesters outdoors the court docket in Tegucigalpa proclaiming his innocence.
“If a citizen is tried, they need to be tried in our nation,” stated Garcia.
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