Drug Cartel Bribery Case, Former Honduran President Hernandez Threatened To Be Sentenced To Tens Of Years In Prison

JAKARTA - Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez will be sentenced to decades in prison when a US judge imposes sentence in drug cases and firearms.

Hernandez, 55, faces a minimum prison sentence of 40 years after a Manhattan jury ruled he accepted millions of dollars in bribes to protect the shipment of cocaine to US belonging to smugglers he had publicly declared to be eradicated.

Federal prosecutors have demanded US District Judge Kevin Castel to sentence Hernandez to life in prison, to convey a message to other human trafficking players and their accomplices to the government.

"Without corrupt politicians like defendants, the large-scale international drug trade at issue in this case, and rampant drug-related violence, is difficult or even impossible," the prosecutor wrote.

Hernandez led Honduras, a US ally in Central America, from 2014 to 2022.

His lawyer, Renato Stabile, urged Castel to sentence him to no more than 40 years in prison, and declared the sentence a life sentence, and said Hernandez would continue to fight for his sentence.

"Hernandez is doing more to combat narcotics trafficking in Honduras than any President of Honduras before or after," wrote Stabile.

Hernandez has been jailed in Brooklyn since his April 2022 extradition from Tegucigalpa.

During a two-week trial, prosecutors said Hernandez used drug money to bribe officials and manipulate vote results during the 2013 and 2017 Honduras presidential elections.

Several convicted human trafficking perpetrators testified they were bribing Hernandez.

Testifying for his own defense, Hernandez denied accepting bribes from drug cartels.