Federal prosecutors asked the judge of the New York court where the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez He is due to receive his sentence on Wednesday, that he be sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in drug trafficking and for the use of weapons to protect criminal businesses.
A jury already found Hernández guilty in March, who, according to the accusation, between 2004 and 2022, when his second term as president ended, was part of a “corrupt and violent conspiracy” of drug trafficking to facilitate the importation of hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine. To USA.
According to the document from the federal prosecutor’s office, which represents the US government, the need to impose life imprisonment lies in achieving general deterrence.
“It is particularly important in this case” to send a message to corrupt government officials and drug traffickers around the world, the prosecutor argued.
In addition, the prosecution asked Judge Kevin Castel, of the federal court for the Southern District of New York, to reject Hernández’s insistent arguments that he is innocent, that the government’s evidence was weak and that the witnesses used (Honduran drug traffickers serving sentences in the US) are not credible.
Hernández sent a letter last Friday to Castel in which he assures that his judicial process was “riddled with errors and injustices” and that it became a “lynching” carried out by the US Justice system.
Renato Stabile, lawyer for the former Honduran president, also sent a letter to the judge asking him to impose 40 years in prison for his client and reaffirming his innocence.
To which the prosecutors of the Department of Justice. they responded that they are only trying to relitigate arguments that were rejected by the jury during the trial and that they were “totally denied.”
“The court should summarily reject these unfounded arguments, which demonstrate nothing more than a break with reality and an inability to accept responsibility for his conduct,” the Prosecutor’s Office detailed.
She also urged the court not to consider Hernández’s arguments based on his supposed “good works” in Honduras, including laws and initiatives aimed at combating drug trafficking, violence and corruption, to support “that he is an innocent man who deserves clemency.”
Likewise, the prosecution recalled that other courts in the country have convicted since 2004 many of the accused’s accomplices, who trafficked a significant amount of cocaine through Latin America until reaching the United States, when he was a congressman.
“The defendant played a (perhaps) vital role, setting the tone from the top, allowing drug trafficking and violence, and unchecked corruption to flourish,” they told the judge.
The prosecution also stressed that Hernández provided protection to criminals so that they would not be prosecuted, he covered up the violence and led a support network that gave political legitimacy to a generation of Honduran drug traffickers.
“Therefore, and for the reasons stated above, the court must reject the defendant’s arguments proclaiming his innocence and sentence him to life imprisonment,” the prosecution stated.