Yesterday, Wednesday, a New York court docket sentenced former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez to a advantageous and 45 years in jail for drug trafficking, primarily based on a ruling introduced by Manhattan Federal Courtroom Decide P. Kevin Castel.
“I’m harmless and I’ve been falsely and unfairly accused,” Hernandez mentioned on the sentencing. A Manhattan choose mentioned Hernandez was a “two-faced, power-hungry politician. “Protected a choose group of smugglers” and earlier than the decision was introduced, anti-Hernandez demonstrators gathered in entrance of the courthouse, holding banners denouncing the crimes of the previous president.
Hernandez was convicted final March of serving to smuggle some 500 tons of cocaine, largely from Colombia and Venezuela, into the USA by Honduras since 2004, lengthy earlier than he turned president.
Prosecutors say Hernandez used drug cash to profit himself, finance his political campaigns and commit electoral fraud within the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. Hernandez admitted in court docket testimony that drug cash was paid to almost each political get together in Honduras, however denied taking bribes.
Hernandez was arrested at his house in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, three months after leaving workplace in 2022, and was extradited to the USA in April of the identical 12 months.
