UPDATE 2-Former Honduran president released from U.S. prison after Trump pardon

(Updates with White House confirmation of pardon) Dec 2 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was released from a U.S. prison where he was serving a 45-year sentence on drug trafficking and firearms charges.

(Updates with White House confirmation of pardon) Dec 2 (Reuters) -

President Donald Trump has pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was released from a U.S. prison where he was serving a 45-year sentence on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Hernandez was released from prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, on Monday, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons registry.

A White House official confirmed on Tuesday that Trump had pardoned Hernandez. Hernandez's wife, Ana Garcia, said in a social media post earlier that Hernandez was released after he was granted a pardon by Trump.

"After nearly four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump," Garcia said. The release came days after a presidential election in Honduras, in which Trump has backed presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, who is facing off with liberal Salvador Nasralla.

The latest vote count showed both candidates practically tied holding just under 40% of the vote. Asfura's party forged a close partnership with Washington under Hernandez, who governed from 2014 to 2022 and was arrested shortly after leaving office.

Hernandez was sentenced in June last year and called his conviction wrongful.

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