Honduras' ex-president returns after drug conviction

 

TT-AFP

 

Published 20:40

 

Former Honduran president Juan Carlos Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States. After being pardoned by President Donald Trump, Hernández was able to return to Honduras on Sunday. File photo. Photo: Moises Castillo/AP/TT

The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, has returned to his homeland after being pardoned by President Donald Trump and released from a 45-year prison sentence in the United States.

Hernández thanked Trump on Sunday for being pardoned: "The best-informed president in the world said: 'I have reviewed the case - my team and I have reviewed it in detail - and it is an extreme injustice,'" Hernández said upon his return to Tegucigalpa.

A US court found him guilty of, among other things, large-scale drug smuggling into the US in a 2024 trial.

Hernández was president of the Central American republic from 2014 to 2022.