Juan Orlando Hernandez faces drug trafficking and guns fees after being extradited to america this week.
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has made his first look in US courtroom after being extradited to the rustic to stand drug trafficking and guns fees.
Hernandez, 53, gave the impression by way of video hyperlink in federal courtroom in New York on Friday. He used to be now not required to go into a plea, and his legal professionals didn’t request bail for him however mentioned they’d accomplish that at a later date, the AFP information company reported.
A US pass judgement on set a Might 10 arraignment listening to for Hernandez, the place he’ll be officially requested whether or not he pleads responsible or now not.
Hernandez used to be extradited on Thursday afternoon from the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on a US Drug Enforcement Management (DEA) airplane certain for the United States.
That very same day, US federal government unsealed an indictment towards the previous president, accusing him of taking part in a “corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of masses of 1000’s of kilograms of cocaine into america”.
He’s accused of getting facilitated the smuggling of a few 500 tonnes of cocaine – basically from Colombia and Venezuela – to the United States by way of Honduras since 2004, beginning lengthy ahead of his presidency.
In flip, he gained “hundreds of thousands of greenbacks in bribes … from a couple of narcotrafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico and different puts”, US prosecutors allege, together with roughly $1m from Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
However the ex-president, who served two phrases between 2014 and January 2022, has maintained that he’s blameless. He misplaced his immunity from prosecution when he passed energy over to Honduras’s first feminine president, Xiomara Castro, in January.
A ruling via the Honduran Very best Courtroom in past due March cleared the way in which for Hernandez to be extradited to stand fees in a New York courtroom.
The United States Justice Division mentioned in a commentary on Thursday that Hernandez – as soon as seen as a key US best friend within the warfare on medicine – “used to be allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of greenbacks in cocaine proceeds which he used to counterpoint himself, finance his political campaigns, and dedicate voter fraud whilst the folks of Honduras continued stipulations of poverty and rampant violence”.
The United States indictment charged Hernandez with 3 counts of drug and guns offences that would land him many years in jail if convicted.
Damian Williams, the United States legal professional for the Southern District of New York, mentioned all the way through a information convention on Thursday night time that Hernandez used to be fascinated with “rampant corruption and big cocaine trafficking” that spurred violence in Honduras.
“Honduras become one of the crucial violent nations on the planet all the way through the defendant’s presidency, and whilst Hernandez gathered cash and political affect, the folks of Honduras continued stipulations of poverty and violence,” he mentioned.
Hernandez has denied the allegations. In a video message launched Thursday, he mentioned: “I’m blameless; I’ve been and I’m being unjustly subjected to prosecution.”
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