The US Justice Department has again postponed the start of the trial against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Justice of the USA It was announced on Saturday that the trial against the former president would begin Honduras, JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ, will be adjourned again, just two days before he appears before a court judge in New York. The postponement was due to the fact that “the government (prosecutor’s office) confirmed that it cannot comply with the delivery of redactions of classified information” that should have been provided to the defense this Friday, lawyer Raymond Colan reported. Thus, the authorities have fixed a new date for the commencement of the next hearing 20th February.

This Saturday was the fourth postponement of the process which, initially, was supposed to start on September 18, 2023, but was last postponed to February 5, then to the 12th and now, to the 20th.

That Tuesday, Hernandez will face a Southern federal court magistrate in Manhattan alone and must convince them of his innocence in the conspiracy. Conspiracy to smuggle more than 500 tons of cocaine and weapons into the United States between 2004 and 2022In which it is being investigated. Documents presented to prosecutors in the case show how the then president amassed much of the state’s power. a bribe, the murders, Collusion Also made deals with major drug trafficking organizations and gangs MS13.

In return, he would receive “millions of dollars” The cartels with which he would have “financed and committed to his political campaign Election FraudIn the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, the indictment shows.

In this case, the former president was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, shortly after leaving the presidency. On February 15, 2022, Honduran authorities arrested him and two months later, on April 21, they handed him over to his American counterparts in what was the beginning of his extradition hearing. on the spot. He was the first former ruler to be requested for extradition to stand trial for drug trafficking and weapons use.

Hernandez maintains that the accusations against him are politically motivated and assures that the New York prosecutor’s office is considering the testimony of drug traffickers that he persecuted during his terms as head of state. Similarly, he has highlighted on past occasions that he has always been an ally of Washington in the war on drugs in the region, contrary to the allegations against him.

Also, his wife, Ana García, asserted in a post on the social network that it is an “unjust process” against an “innocent” person, who is “held” in “a state of detention” as “part of a strategy”. Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of the State.

However, in recent weeks, the case changed dramatically after two former Honduran officials who served under Hernandez pleaded guilty. is one of them Juan Carlos Bonilla -alias El Tigre-, then the former director of the National Police of Honduras, who said he helped drug traffickers in their business and who, according to third witnesses, also served as a hitman for those involved in the conspiracy. Another was the cousin of a former president and former police officer, Mauricio Hernandez Pineda.

The magistrate does not rule out testifying against him during the trial, which would only complicate his case. Many analysts also speculated that, if he did not plead guilty, he would face punishment. Life imprisonment.

The former director of operations for the United States Anti-Drug Agency, Mike Vigil, stated that he believed that justice would be harsh on Hernandez, as was the case with his brother, Juan Antonio ‘Tony’, who was convicted in October 2019. He was sentenced to life in prison in New York on March 30, 2021, for drug trafficking.

(With information from AFP)