Honduras trying to arrest former president pardoned by Trump

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Honduras’ legal professional common is looking for the arrest of former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was lately pardoned by President Donald Trump .

Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez mentioned Monday that he ordered Honduran authorities and requested Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order in opposition to Hernández for alleged fraud and cash laundering fees. Hernandez, who in 2024 was sentenced to 45 years for allegedly serving to to maneuver tons of cocaine into the U.S., was launched from federal jail within the U.S. every week in the past.

"We've got been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by the prison networks which have deeply marked the lifetime of our nation," Zelaya mentioned, in line with a translation of a submit he wrote on X.

Zelaya included a photograph of the two-year-old order signed by a Honduras Supreme Courtroom Justice of the Peace that claims that it have to be executed "within the case that the accused is freed by United States authorities."

FORMER HONDURAN PRESIDENT RELEASED FROM US PRISON AFTER TRUMP PARDON

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, proper, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos; Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Company/Getty Photos)

Dozens of Honduran officers and politicians had been implicated within the so-called Pandora case through which Honduran prosecutors alleged authorities funds had been diverted by a community of nongovernmental organizations to political events, together with Hernández's 2013 presidential marketing campaign, in line with The Related Press.

Hernández went from supposed U.S. ally within the conflict on medication to the topic of a U.S. extradition request shortly after he left workplace in 2022, the AP added. He was detained and despatched to the U.S. by present President Xiomara Castro of the social democrat LIBRE get together.

A lawyer for Hernández, Renato Stabile, instructed the AP in an e-mail that, "That is clearly a strictly political transfer on behalf of the defeated Libre get together to attempt to intimidate President Hernandez as they're being kicked out of energy in Honduras. It's shameful and a determined piece of political theatre and these fees are fully baseless."

Hernández was freed after Trump introduced he was issuing him a " full and complete pardon " following his conviction of conspiring with drug traffickers to import greater than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

FORMER WORLD LEADER THANKS TRUMP FOR PARDON: ‘YOU CHANGED MY LIFE’

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from proper, is taken in handcuffs to a ready plane as he's extradited to america, at an Air Power base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 21, 2022. (Elmer Martinez/AP)

Trump mentioned Hernández was "handled very harshly and unfairly," implying that his trial was politically motivated or over-prosecuted.

Hernández was convicted in New York on fees of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and two associated weapons offenses after a two-week trial.

Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking motion who teamed up with American authorities beneath three U.S. presidential administrations to cut back drug imports, in line with the AP. However the decide mentioned trial proof proved the alternative and that Hernández employed "appreciable performing expertise" to make it appear that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader whereas he deployed his nation’s police and navy, when obligatory, to guard the drug commerce.

Hernández later thanked Trump for pardoning him, writing on social media that he was "wrongfully convicted."

Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks throughout the opening ceremony of the U.N. Local weather Change Convention COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday Nov. 1, 2021. (Andy Buchanan/AP)

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"My profound gratitude goes to President @realDonaldTrump for having the braveness to defend justice at a second when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the reality. You reviewed the info, acknowledged the injustice, and acted with conviction. You modified my life, sir, and I'll always remember it," Hernández wrote on X.