FILE - On this Aug. 13, 2019 file picture, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez solutions questions from the Related Press, as he leaves a gathering on the Group of American States, in Washington. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS --
A Honduran choose signed an arrest order Tuesday for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a step towards fulfilling a request by the USA authorities for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons fees.
The U.S. transfer got here lower than three weeks after Hernandez left workplace, and follows years of accusations in regards to the Honduran chief's alleged hyperlinks to drug traffickers.
The Supreme Courtroom of Justice designated a choose to deal with the case and hours later the choose signed an order for Hernandez's arrest, mentioned courtroom spokesman Melvin Duarte. The safety ministry, which has Hernandez's residence surrounded, will coordinate to ensure he seems earlier than the choose inside 24 hours.
Hernandez had mentioned he would flip himself in as soon as there was an order.
Honduran safety forces surrounded Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night time and on Tuesday the Supreme Courtroom of Justice met to decide on a choose to deal with the extradition request.
Honduran Safety Minister Ramon Sabillon, who was fired by Hernandez as head of the Nationwide Police in 2014, mentioned Tuesday that Hernandez had conspired "with cartels to visitors (medicine) and corrupt many public establishments, which led to social deterioration and undermined the appliance of justice in Honduras."
He mentioned the primary fees Hernandez faces within the U.S. had been drug trafficking, utilizing weapons for drug trafficking and conspiracy to make use of weapons in drug trafficking.
U.S. prosecutors in New York had repeatedly implicated Hernandez as a co-conspirator throughout his brother's 2019 drug trafficking trial, alleging that his political rise was fueled by drug income.
His brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez was sentenced to life in jail on drug and weapons fees in March 2021. At his sentencing Assistant U.S. Lawyer Matthew Laroche characterised the crimes as "state-sponsored drug trafficking."
Nicole Navas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Division of Justice, declined remark late Monday in regards to the U.S. extradition request.
In a video launched by Hernandez's authorized workforce, apparently from inside his residence, lawyer Felix Avila mentioned that no arrest order had but been issued.
Hernandez launched an audio recording through Twitter early Tuesday thanking his supporters. "It's not a straightforward second," he mentioned. "I do not want it for anybody."
He mentioned his attorneys had knowledgeable the Nationwide Police that "I'm prepared and ready to cooperate and go voluntarily ... to face this case and defend myself" if an arrest order is issued.
The id of the choose chosen to deal with the case was not instantly launched. Nevertheless, the courtroom's president, Rolando Argueta, is understood to be near Hernandez, and all 15 Supreme Courtroom justices had been chosen by Congress in 2016 throughout Hernandez's first presidential time period. They serve seven-year phrases, and most come from his Nationwide Get together.
The U.S. strikes had been a long-awaited fall for a pacesetter reviled in his residence nation who loved help from the Trump administration however had been stored at arm's size by the Biden White Home, which has focused Central America's endemic corruption as a root reason behind migration.
Final 12 months, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was certainly one of a dozen senators who supported a invoice that sought to isolate Hernandez by imposing sanctions on him and prohibiting the export of tear gasoline, pepper spray and rubber bullets that Honduran safety forces deployed in recent times towards protesters.
"All through the previous eight years of decay, depravity, and impunity, successive U.S. administrations sullied our popularity by treating Hernandez as a buddy and accomplice," Leahy mentioned in an announcement Tuesday. "By making excuse after excuse for a authorities that had no legitimacy and that functioned as a felony enterprise, U.S. officers overlooked what we stand for and that our actual companions are the Honduran folks."
Dana Frank, a Honduras knowledgeable and professor of historical past emerita on the College of California, Santa Cruz, mentioned the U.S. desires to look heroic for lastly making an attempt to deliver Hernandez to justice, however that successive administrations going again to President Barack Obama enabled Hernandez.
"Hernandez was in a position to wreak havoc with Honduras, with devastating prices, largely as a result of the U.S. supported him as much as the final minute," Frank mentioned.
Honduran felony lawyer Marlon Duarte mentioned that the extradition course of towards Hernandez, if it strikes forward, wouldn't final greater than three months.
As soon as an arrest order is issued, Hernandez must flip himself in or be forcibly taken into custody, he mentioned. At an preliminary listening to, Hernandez would be told of the costs and he could be held on a army base.
Inside two months, one other listening to could be held by which the U.S. proof could be offered and the choose would decide on whether or not he needs to be extradited.
If the choose guidelines for extradition, Hernandez would have three days to attraction. Then the appellate courtroom -- additionally named by the Supreme Courtroom -- would determine inside 5 days whether or not to verify the extradition or overturn the choose's determination. If the choose denies extradition, the U.S. authorities would have a possibility to attraction.
Hernandez left workplace Jan. 27 with the swearing in of President Xiomara Castro. The identical day, he was sworn in as Honduras' consultant to the Central American Parliament.
One among his attorneys, Hermes Ramirez, instructed native media his consumer had immunity as a member of the regional parliament and mentioned authorities forces weren't following correct procedures. He mentioned Hernandez was inside the house.
Numerous contingents of the Nationwide Police, together with particular forces in addition to army police, had been current round Hernandez's neighborhood Monday night time. Obstacles at the entire entrances stored out media and even residents.
Members of the safety forces entered the realm with weapons, carrying balaclavas and with handcuffs dangling from their ballistic vests.
Hernandez typically pointed to the truth that Honduras started permitting the extradition of its residents on drug trafficking fees whereas he was president of the Congress as a part of his protection.
However U.S. prosecutors have alleged that he was taking bribes from drug traffickers on the promise of defending them as soon as he was president.
Hernandez took workplace on Jan. 27, 2014. He used a pleasant Supreme Courtroom to beat Honduras' constitutional ban on reelection and gained a second time period in 2017 in elections marred by irregularities.
Round midnight Monday, 56-year-old Jorge Arturo Vega, a supporter of recent president Castro's Liberty and Refoundation social gathering, stood exterior a police barricade at Hernandez's neighborhood celebrating.
"This can be a social gathering we have been ready a very long time for," Vega mentioned, pondering again over the dozen years since Hernandez got here up in Congress. "We could not stand this drug trafficker, felony, killer within the presidential home any longer."
------
Sherman reported from Mexico Metropolis. Related Press writers Elmer Martinez in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Claudia Torrens in New York, contributed to this story.
Post a Comment