Honduras: Ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández extradited to the United States

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Juan Orlando Hernández is escorted to a DEA plane

Photo: FREDY RODRIGUEZ / REUTERS

The former President of Honduras has been extradited to the United States about three months after the end of his term in office.

Juan Orlando Hernández was handed over to employees of the US anti-narcotics agency DEA at the airport in the capital Tegucigalpa on Thursday (local time), as was seen live on television.

The 53-year-old has to answer before a court in New York for drug and weapons offenses.

According to the indictment, he is said to have made Honduras a "drug state".

The politician and later president is said to have helped drug smugglers to have smuggled around 500,000 kilograms of cocaine via Honduras towards the USA since 2004.

Hernández, who ruled the Central American country for eight years, rejects the allegations.

"I am innocent and am being subjected to an unfair trial," he said in a video message that his wife, Ana García, posted on Twitter shortly before the extradition.

In his view, the allegations are revenge by drug dealers who were handed over to the US judiciary by him.

They would have lied to get agreements to reduce their sentences.

A year ago, Hernández's brother Juan Antonio was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling cocaine in the United States.

The then President was also charged in the court proceedings.

The fate of the conservative ex-head of state changed immediately after the end of his two four-year terms in office.

On January 27, left-wing politician Xiomara Castro became the first woman to take power, and almost three weeks later he turned himself in to police and was arrested outside his home in Tegucigalpa.

The Honduran Supreme Court approved extradition to the United States.

bbr/dpa