- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ |
Honduran ex-president faces US extradition for alleged drug trafficking
Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, accused by Washington of ties with drug traffickers, vowed Tuesday to cooperate with domestic justice in a US bid to extradite him.
Honduras's Supreme Court of Justice will meet Tuesday to assign a judge to weigh the US request even as Hernandez's lawyer claimed the politician enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
In an audio message on Twitter, Hernandez said his team had already informed the police "that I am ready to collaborate and to come voluntarily... at the time the judge will decide."
He would do so, said Hernandez, "to confront this situation and defend myself."
Special forces agents encircled Hernandez's home in the capital Tegucigalpa after an official, who declined to be named, confirmed to AFP Monday that Washington had asked for him to be extradited.
The official said Hernandez was in the country.
The ex-president's lawyer, Hermes Ramirez, said the police deployment constituted an "attack" on the ex-president's rights as it had prevented advisers from coming to the residence.
Dozens of people with banners, meanwhile, celebrated outside Hernandez's home, while in other cities people took to the streets with loudspeakers singing "Juancho goes to New York," using a nickname for the ex-president.
Hernandez, a former US ally who left office last month, has been linked to drug trafficking operations by New York prosecutors.
- 'Significant corruption' -
Even though he officially supported US anti-drug campaigns during his two terms in office, traffickers caught in the United States claimed to have paid bribes to the president's inner circle.
Alleged associate Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez was sentenced in the United States last week to life in prison and a fine of $151.7 million for smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States -- with Hernandez's aid, according to prosecutors.
And in March 2021, Hernandez's brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez, was given life in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "according to multiple, credible media reports" Hernandez "has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking and using the proceeds of illicit activity to facilitate political campaigns."
Hernandez denies the claims, which he said were part of a revenge plot by drug lords that his government had captured or extradited to the United States.
- 'Bankrupt' state -
Lawyer Ramirez insisted Monday that his client enjoyed immunity from prosecution as a member of the Guatemala-based Central American Parliament, Parlacen.
Hernandez joined Parlacen hours after leaving office on January 27, when leftist Xiomara Castro was sworn in with vows to transform the "bankrupt" state he left behind.
Several analysts approached by AFP said that any immunity conferred by Parlacen membership could be waived by the regional body at the request of a national government.
Ramirez said no arrest warrant had yet been served on Hernandez, who had sought to cultivate close ties with Washington during eight years in office dogged by accusations of corruption.
Blinken said last week that Hernandez was added to a list last year of people denied entry to the United States for corrupt or anti-democratic actions.
Attending Castro's swearing-in last month, US Vice President Kamala Harris was the first foreign official to have a bilateral meeting with her, and welcomed the new leader's commitment to combating corruption and impunity.
Castro has promised to undo laws passed under Hernandez that reduced penalties for drug trafficking and corruption.
S.Keller--BTB