The trial, which will last between two and three weeks According to Judge Kevin Castel, it began with the selection of the 12 members of the jury and 6 alternates from a total of 40 preselected, half of whom have expressed problems being present the entire time of the trial, the court noted. AFP.
The former president, known as JOH in Honduras, appeared at the hearing flanked by his lawyers and dressed in a suit and tie. At first he seemed nervous, rubbing his hands all the time. Lawyer Raymond Colon asked him to calm down.
Hernandez must still decide whether he will take the stand to testify.
Extradited to New York in April 2022, the 55-year-old former president is accused of participating in and protecting a network that sent more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States between 2004 and 2022.
In exchange, he received “millions of dollars” from drug cartels, including Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, according to the New York prosecutor’s office.
If found guilty of the three charges brought once morest him by the prosecution – drug trafficking, trafficking and possession of weapons – he might be sentenced to life imprisonment, like his brother Tony Hernández and his collaborator Geovanny Fuentes, who participated in the same network.
In front of the court, a group of regarding twenty Hondurans demonstrated this Tuesday, February 20, to request three life sentences for the former president for each of the charges. “Here is your narco president,” they chanted.
Read more: “El Chapo” Guzmán: the video of the drug trafficker’s granddaughter singing in the streets of London
“Victim of revenge”
In a letter published on Monday, February 19, the former president (2014-2022) reiterated that he is “innocent” and a “victim of revenge.”
“I am innocent, I am a victim of revenge and a conspiracy by organized crime and political enemies,” said the former ruler in the letter published on the X network by his wife, Ana García.
I share a Public Letter to the Honduran People with an important message from my husband @JuanOrlandoH. #innocent #had returned #justice #ThePowerOfTruth pic.twitter.com/K3kyHlYGxO
— Ana García de Hernández (@anagarciacarias) February 19, 2024
In the message addressed to the Honduran people, which will have little impact on the trial in the Southern Federal Court of Manhattan, Hernández described the accusations as “unfair” and “full of lies constructed in a fictional manner based on the testimony” of “confessed drug traffickers.” “, who negotiated with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of New York to achieve “the reduction of their sentences.”
On this day I bless the life of my husband Juan Orlando Hernández @JuanOrlandoH . He is #Innocent pronto #had returned. Everything is under the control and promises of God. In the name of Jesus we will soon see victory!!
””Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwells on the earth, and cultivates… pic.twitter.com/RQTdjdk8Xm
— Ana García de Hernández (@anagarciacarias) February 20, 2024
Other defendants, former police chief Juan Carlos “Tigre” Bonilla and former police officer Mauricio Hernández, who were to be tried with the former president, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
This decision, which might mean a reduced sentence, might be harmful to JOH, which has always boasted of Washington’s praise for its government’s work in the fight once morest drug trafficking.
Pressure
According to the former president’s lawyers, Bonilla was going to testify once morest him.
In his defense, Hernández alleges that during his administration laws once morest drug trafficking were passed, such as the one that facilitated his own extradition.
Late Friday, Judge Castel once once more denied a defense request to delay the trial once more between 90 and 180 days, alleging a lack of time to examine the thousands of pages presented by the prosecution.
Of them, 2,200 since January 13 and that are marked as sensitive and can only be reviewed by the accused in the presence of a specialized lawyer.
It is unusual to see a former president being tried in an American court. Before him, the Panamanian Antonio Manuel Noriega, in 1992, and the Guatemalan Alfonso Portillo, in 2014, were convicted by the US justice system.
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Last year, former Mexican Homeland Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, the highest-ranking Mexican official to ever sit on the bench in the United States, was found guilty of drug trafficking, among other charges. The announcement of his sentence is scheduled for June 24, following being delayed on several occasions.
Since 2014, Honduras has extradited 38 people accused of drug trafficking to the United States, where in addition to Tony Hernandez and Geovanny Fuentes, Fabio Lobo, son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), has already been sentenced to 24 years in prison, and former deputy Fredy Renán Nájera, 30 years old.
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