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The Supreme Courtroom in Honduras on Monday gave a inexperienced gentle for the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to the USA to face drug trafficking and weapons fees.
US prosecutors have accused 53-year-old Hernandez of receiving drug cash between 2004 and 2022 to finance his political rise.
The accusations are a part of a probe into Honduras’ function as a transit level for big quantities of cocaine smuggled from South America to the USA.
Hernandez had appealed an earlier choice by a decide to permit extradition to the US on request of the Courtroom of the Southern District of New York.
If discovered responsible, Hernandez may face a life sentence.
Honduran judiciary spokesman Melvin Duarte stated that there have been no additional routes of enchantment obtainable to the previous conservative president.
What fees does Hernandez face?
Hernandez faces a complete of three fees — conspiracy to import a managed substance into the US, conspiracy to make use of or carry firearms, and utilizing or carrying firearms together with machine weapons.
Hernandez, who after eight years in workplace was changed as president in January this yr by leftist Xiomara Castro, is accused of facilitating the smuggling of almost 500 tons of medication, largely from Colombia and Venezuela, to the US through Honduras since 2004.
US prosecutors additionally allege he acquired thousands and thousands of {dollars} from drug traffickers for shielding them, together with from Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
On February 15, Hernandez was arrested at his residence on the request of the US authorities, following a dramatic stakeout.
The arrest got here three weeks after he left workplace.
In March 2021, the ex-president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, was sentenced to life in a US jail on drug and weapons fees.
What has Hernandez stated?
Hernandez has continued to disclaim any wrongdoing and says that statements in opposition to him have been made by drug kingpins extradited by his authorities who wished to hunt “revenge” in opposition to him.
Monday noticed dozens of protesters exterior the courthouse in Tegucigalpa who proclaimed the ex-president’s innocence.
Amongst them have been Hernandez’s spouse Ana Garcia and the couple’s two daughters.
Felix Avila, considered one of Juan Orlando Hernandez’s legal professionals, stated “this can be a choice by the Supreme Courtroom and the truth that we do not agree with it doesn’t imply it’s unlawful.”
Hernandez’s household emphasised in a press release in a while Monday that the choice was not a legal conviction.
“We’re prepared and assured that we’ll have the ability to present the US justice system that these accusations are a revenge plot from Honduran narcos whose empire of crime and violence Juan Orlando destroyed.”
Ex-first girl Ana Garcia printed a letter by which the previous president reasserted his innocence and claimed that he’s a sufferer of “revenge and conspiracy.”
“Three life sentences may make me a residing useless,” wrote Hernandez, including that it was “painful” to be separated from his family members.
dvv/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters)
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