Former Honduras President Hernandez freed after Trump pardon

Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, his wife announced Tuesday.

The US Bureau of Prisons inmate website showed that Hernandez was released from US Penitentiary, Hazelton, in West Virginia, on Monday, and a spokesperson for the bureau on Tuesday confirmed his release.

His wife Ana Garcia thanked Trump for pardoning Hernandez via the social platform X early Tuesday.

"After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump," Garcia's post said. She included a picture of the US Bureau of Prisons listing for Hernandez, indicating his release.

Hernandez was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after handing over power to the current President Xiomara Castro.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

Hernandez maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

On Sunday, Trump was asked about why he pardoned Hernandez by reporters travelling with him on Air Force One.

"I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras," Trump said.

"The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing," he said.

"They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them." The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras' presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party, Nasry Asfura, one of the leaders, as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)