Defense of the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández asks to reduce his sentence

The defense of the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, asked the federal court in New York, where he will be sentenced on Wednesday for drug trafficking, to impose on the former president, who faces up to life in prison, a sentence of 40 years in prisonclaiming that with his age, this would be enough.

His court-appointed lawyer Renato Stabile proposed to Judge Kevin Castel, of the federal court for the southern district of New York presiding over the case, that change the sentence to a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison for your client.

“Hernández is 55 years old so a sentence of 40 years is equivalent to one life,” he stated in an extensive document of 159 pages and which is accompanied by a letter from Hernández to the federal magistrate in which he reiterates his innocence and exposes the “errors”, “failures” and “injustices” that he considers were committed during the process against him.

On March 8, Hernández was found guilty of three counts of drug and weapons trafficking by a jury, after a trial that lasted just over two weeks.

The lawyer’s letter further indicates that the court should not impose “additional punishment on his client, for that reason and also for his life of hard work for the people of Honduras.”

“A 40-year sentence satisfies the stated sentencing objectives” in the sentencing guide.

Stabile reiterated to Judge Castel the innocence of his client and listed the reasons on which he based it and that he presented during the trial, among them the statements of drug traffickers, who, according to what he alleged at the time, only wanted revenge for having persecuted them and extradited them to the United States. ..

Hernández’s lawyer also recalled that with their statement against the former president, these witnesses were seeking a reduction in the sentence they are serving in US prisons.

And he assured the judge that the former Honduran president will continue to “clear his name” in a “constitutionally fair” trial.

Former president of Honduras reiterated that he is innocent

For his part, Hernández indicated in a letter addressed to the magistrate who will decide his future, that fHe was accused and convicted “unjustly and improperly.”

Furthermore, he assured that both he, his family and the sovereignty of Honduras were the object of abuse “due to the conspiracy” against him carried out by organized crime groups.

“The investigation and trial against me is full of errors, of injustices that have become a lynching through the justice system of this country,” he assured and He accused prosecutors and agents of not having done their job diligently to make the truth known.

The former president of Honduras reiterated in his letter failures that in his opinion were evident during his judicial process, among which he mentions that the Prosecutor’s Office and the DEA did not investigate or mention that during his term as president, Honduras stopped being the main drug route. that arrived from South America to Mexico, destined for the United States.

“Judge Castel, the truth is that when I was president of the national Congress and then president of the republic, extraordinary and historic decisions were made in Honduras to reduce and stop drug trafficking, as well as the approval of extradition, purging of the police , and the airspace protection law, among other actions that resulted in the reduction of violence and crime,” Juan Orlando Hernández reiterated.

The letters from Stabile and Hernández are accompanied by evidence such as articles published in various media about actions taken under their government to combat drug trafficking, copies of DEA documents on the extradition of Honduran drug traffickers under Hernández, and photos, to support their claim of innocence.

Keep reading:
• Juan Orlando Hernández and other high-profile officials who have been convicted in the US for drug trafficking
• Juan Orlando Hernández’s lawyer regrets that in the US they believe in “the words of psychopaths and thugs”
• X-ray of a “narco-state”: this is how Honduras functioned under the power of Juan Orlando Hernández, according to the evidence for which he was found guilty in the US.