A defiant former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in New York Wednesday to 45 years in prison.
FILE - Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from right, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras , April 21, 2022. Hernandez was sentenced Wednesday, June 26, 2024 in New York, for his conviction on charges that he enabled drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to help get tons of cocaine into the United States.
“I am innocent," Hernández said through an interpreter at his sentencing. "I was wrongly and unjustly accused.” As the sentence was announced, the bespectacled Hernández in a dull green prison uniform stood next to his lawyer in front of two U.S. marshals. After shaking hands with his lawyer and turning to nod toward the packed spectator section, Hernández hobbled out of court with the help of a cane and a brace on one foot.
U.S. prosecutors said Hernández worked with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, taking millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office. Luis Romero, a Honduran criminal lawyer and analyst, said the sentence was a surprise to many people in Honduras who believed he would receive a life sentence.
Drug Traffickers Sentenced Cocaine U.S. Bribes Trial Honduras
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