- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
- India's Ashwin 'happy' to embrace pressure
- A modern 'Trojan Horse': two days of mayhem in Lebanon
- Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
- Man Utd appoint Foster + Partners to develop Old Trafford 'masterplan'
- Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border
- French mayor sorry for 'no one died' remark over mass rape trial
- Mohamed Al-Fayed, outsider shunned by British high society
- Lawyers say 'monster' late Harrods owner abused dozens of women
- India in box seat after Bumrah takes four against Bangladesh
- Taiwan retains death penalty but limits use to 'exceptional' cases
- Ferrari's Leclerc sets early pace in Singapore ahead of Norris
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.12% | 25.15 | $ | |
NGG | 1.02% | 69.54 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0.14% | 6.96 | $ | |
BTI | -0.62% | 37.34 | $ | |
AZN | -0.7% | 78.355 | $ | |
SCS | -2.38% | 13 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.16% | 25.05 | $ | |
GSK | -1.76% | 40.9 | $ | |
RIO | -2.51% | 63.585 | $ | |
RELX | -0.32% | 47.975 | $ | |
BCC | -1.49% | 142.565 | $ | |
JRI | -0.68% | 13.31 | $ | |
BP | -0.29% | 32.665 | $ | |
BCE | -1.12% | 34.8 | $ | |
VOD | -0.45% | 10.015 | $ |
Ex-Honduran president appears in US court on drugs charges
Ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez made his first appearance before a US judge Friday following his extradition to America to face drug trafficking charges.
The 53-year-old appeared in a New York federal court via video-link after he was brought to the United States on Thursday.
Hernandez is accused of aiding the smuggling of hundreds of tons of cocaine to America in return for millions of dollars in bribes from drug-traffickers.
Hernandez was not required to enter a plea during the short hearing. His lawyers did not make a request for bail but said they would at a later date.
Judge Stewart Aaron set a date of May 10 for Hernandez's arraignment, when the former leader will be expected to say whether he will challenge the charges.
Hernandez, whose 2014 to 2022 stint as president was plagued by allegations of corruption, risks spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
He is accused of having facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tons of cocaine -- mainly from Colombia and Venezuela -- to America via Honduras since 2004, starting long before his presidency.
In turn, he received "millions of dollars in bribes... from multiple narcotrafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico and other places," US prosecutors allege.
Hernandez has been charged with three counts of drug and weapons offenses.
Not even three weeks after leaving office following elections, a warrant was issued for his arrest at Washington's request, and he surrendered to police on February 15.
He was then held at a police special forces prison in the capital Tegucigalpa before he was taken to the US on a Drug Enforcement Administration plane.
Hernandez portrayed himself as an ally of the US war on drugs during his tenure, helping to extradite several narcotics kingpins.
Washington even supported his re-election in 2017 despite a constitutional one-term limit and accusations of voting fraud.
But several drug traffickers since told US prosecutors they had paid bribes to the president's inner circle, and by the time he left office, US drug enforcers were ready to move against Hernandez.
- 'Narco-state' -
The US says the former president turned Honduras into a "narco-state" by involving the military, police and civilians in drug trafficking to the United States.
He is alleged to have received money from traffickers including Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, allowing them to operate with near impunity.
An alleged Hernandez associate, Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, was sentenced in the United States in February to life in prison and a fine of $151.7 million for smuggling tons of cocaine with the ex-president's aid.
And the former president's brother, ex-congressman Tony Hernandez, was given a life sentence in America in March 2021 for drug trafficking crimes in which Juan Orlando Hernandez was said to have been a co-conspirator.
Hernandez left office on January 27 when leftist Xiomara Castro became president. Honduras has a poverty rate of at least 60 percent among its 10 million inhabitants.
On March 28, the 15-member Supreme Court of Honduras -- all judges appointed during Hernandez's first term -- ratified his extradition.
The former president's family has said drug-traffickers told lies about Hernandez in a bid to have their own sentences reduced.
F.Pavlenko--BTB