The ex-President of Honduras has actually been paraded through the streets in handcuffs after being apprehended on drug-trafficking charges.
Juan Orlando Hernandez just left workplace 3 weeks ago however was apprehended at the demand of the United States due to the fact that of his supposed links to cartels.
He was accompanied from his house in chains and a bullet-proof vest on Tuesday to a cops base in the nation’s capital, Tegucigalpa.
The arrest was relayed on nationwide tv and he was likewise analyzed by a medical group in front of the video cameras, prior to investing a night in the cells.
Hernandez, a right-winger, is implicated of assisting drugs gangs get tonnes of drug from Colombia and Venezuela, which were then delivered onwards to the United States in between 2004 and2022
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He is declared to have actually gotten countless dollars in kickbacks in exchange for securing traffickers from examination and prosecution, which he utilized to money his political projects.
A extradition demand likewise comprehensive guns charges consisting of bring, utilizing, or assisting and abetting making use of weapons, consisting of gatling gun.
Hernandez, 53, who was changed as president last month by leftist Xiomara Castro, has actually vowed to comply with nationwide authorities. He has actually rejected any misdeed.
He had actually been holed up in his house surrounded by about 100 law enforcement officer late on Monday, after Honduran authorities got the U.S. ask for his extradition.
Honduras’ Supreme Court still needs to make a judgement on the demand in a procedure that might last in between 2 and 3 months.
Henandez’ attorneys have actually argued that he has resistance from prosecution as a member of a local congress, having actually signed up with the Central American Parliament simply a couple of hours after leaving workplace on January 27.
The resistance bestowed by this six-country local body, which makes up chosen authorities in addition to previous presidents and vice presidents, can nevertheless be gotten rid of or suspended at the demand of a member’s house nation.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Hernandez published a message on Twitter stating he had actually notified the authorities that he was ‘ready to collaborate.’
Washington’s ask for extradition remained in plain contrast to a duration when the U.S. federal government saw Hernandez as an essential ally in unpredictable Central America throughout his 8 years in power.
Last year, a U.S. judge sentenced Hernandez’s bro to life in jail plus 30 years for drug trafficking, and the previous president was called as an unindicted co-conspirator in another drug trafficking case in New York.
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