Global Courant 2023-05-08 23:42:59
A Honduran court began this Monday the oral trial against the former independent presidential candidate, Santos Rodriguez Orellanaformer Army captain, his wife and mother-in-law, for the crime of money laundering to the detriment of the State, a judicial source reported.
The Honduran judiciary indicated on Twitter that the process against Santos Rodriguez Orellana, Jennifer Bonilla (wife) and Reina Bonilla (mother-in-law) is held at the National Sentencing Court of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The Court of Appeals declared a request for a change of measures for Rodríguez Orellana “has place”, so that the defendant, his wife and his mother-in-law will defend themselves in freedom during the trial, which will last until this Thursday, according to the Judiciary.
Saints Rodríguez Orellana and his wife were detained on November 4, 2021 at the Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, when they were returning from a trip to the island of Roatán, in the Honduran Caribbean.
His mother-in-law, who is engaged in trade in a market in Santa Rosa de Copán, in western Honduras, was arrested that same day in that city.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Organized Crime will evacuate in the trial “18 documentary evidence, two testimonial statements, computer forensic opinions, extraction of analysis of electronic devices, wiretapping and telephone empties, criminal links”, indicated the Public Ministry it’s a statement.
In addition, “a financial expertise with more than 80 inputs, from whose assessment it is expected that room I of the sentencing court issues a conviction” against the defendants, he added.
MONEY AND DRUGS SEIZED WITHOUT REPORTING
According to research, Saints Rodríguez Orellana “carried out operations in the Gracias a Dios area and when he found money or drugs he did not declare it in its entirety, keeping part of what was seized and the confiscated weapons were taken to a criminal group in La Ceiba called ZIPE,” the Ministry said. Public.
The defendant, he added, participated in the seizure of vehicles carrying “million dollar amounts” and, according to witnesses, also “is involved in the deaths of many people, including an informant for the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).”
Saints Rodríguez Orellana, according to “wiretaps, negotiated drug delivery after it was stolen from other criminal organizations in the Mosquitia sector,” and “all this money was sent consecutively to his wife and mother-in-law,” the Public Ministry said.
According to financial analysis, the former captain of the Armed Forces received “more than 2.5 million lempiras ($101,821) in gross income and 813,918 lempiras ($33,149) in net salaries.” However, his wife and mother-in-law had “sources of income in the period between 2010 and 2020, more than 238 million lempiras (9.7 million dollars) in unjustified income, the origin of the transactions in the financial system and investments in the acquisition of fixed assets and commercial companies”, added the Public Ministry.
“With the above, it is evident that the commercial activity carried out and registered with the Revenue Administration Service (SAR) is not consistent with what was declared, there being a clear relationship between money laundering and drug trafficking,” he emphasized.
Rodríguez Orellana was fired from the Army for “disgraceful acts, contrary to ethics” and “military decorum” that “affect the prestige and image of the institution” after denouncing in 2016 that the Armed Forces of his country were infiltrating drug trafficking. EFE
