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Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced on Wednesday in a drug trafficking case in New York, USA. He is accused of helping smugglers smuggle cocaine into the US, for which his army and the country’s police force were used.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced former President Hernandez to 45 years in prison, which he will have to serve in a US prison. Apart from this, he was fined 8 million US dollars.
Jury found him guilty
In March, a jury convicted him in a two-week trial in Manhattan’s federal court. However, when sentenced, Hernandez said that I am innocent. I have been wrongly and unjustly accused. Castel called Hernandez a power-hungry double-faced leader who protects a group of smugglers.
The former president was convicted by a jury on three counts, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the US and using weapons to bring drugs into the country. These charges carried a minimum prison sentence of 40 years.
America’s trusted partner
According to the information, Hernandez served two terms as the President of Honduras from 2014 to 2022. He was considered a trusted partner for the US in Central America during the tenure of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The former president was arrested in February 2022, a few weeks after completing his second term. His brother, former Honduran politician Juan Antonio, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 for drug trafficking in the US.
