Judge Edwin Ortez issued this Wednesday the provisional arrest of the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who is awaiting possible extradition to the US, where he is accused of drug trafficking.
“The judge has decided to decree provisional arrest of the citizen Juan Orlando Hernández,” reported the spokesman for the Judiciary, Merlin Duarte, at the end of the first hearing in which the former president heard the charges against him.
According to the Judiciary, house arrest was ruled out in this case because “the decree issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, applicable to extradition procedures, does not allow the judge to establish a measure other than provisional detention“.
“The judge sets the hearing for the presentation and evacuation of the evidence for Wednesday, March 16 at 9:00 in the morning, so that the parties can propose the pertinent evidence,” Duarte explained.
After learning of this measure, Hernández was transferred in a strong security operation from the Supreme Court of Justice to the Cobra Squad of the National Directorate of Special Forces, in Tegucigalpa, the place where he spent Tuesday night after being arrested in his housing by the security forces.
The police authorities decreed that Hernández be guarded by at least 16 agents. Once he is in the Cobra Squad facility he will be able to receive his family.
