| Honduras
JOH Brother Tony Files Priest Letter
Saying Only Saw Normal Security, JOH
Absent
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Song Filing
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 27 – Honduras President
Juan Orlando Hernandez took a
briefcase of cash and said he
would stuff drugs up the noses
of the gringos, a jury was
told on March 16, 2020.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it, morning here
and then the afternoon, about
the video(s), here
and below. Geovanny
Fuentes was found guilty, and
his lawyer told Inner City
Press he thinks JOH will be or
has already been indicted.
Also on
March 16, the US Attorney's
Office filed its sentencing
memo for JOH's brother Tony
Hernandez, previously
convicted in a jury trial also
covered by Inner City Press.
The US is asking for life in
prison, and money.
Full
memo on
Patreon here.
On March
26, Tony Hernandez countered
with a request for the minimum
of 40 years, with a submission
citing brothers but NOT Juan
Orlando Hernandez. The word
Orlando does not appear in the
filing, on Patreon here.
Now on
March 27 Inner City Press has
published more of the letters
of support on Patreon here,
for example from Lesby Janeth
Flores, saying that the person
shown at the trial was not
Tony Hernandez (who was it,
then?), from Aixa Marlene
Hernandez Alvarado who writes
(in a letter submitted with
cut-off margins) "I always
told him, 'You are too easy to
get through'" and quotes
Psalms.
Another
relative's letter quotes
Cervantes, identifying him to
Judge Castel as "famous
Spanish writer;" there is a
handwritten letter from Maria
Teresa Lara and one from a
priest, Jose Iniciente
Calderon Sanchez, who says he
never saw Tony with more
security than a Congressman
would have. What about the
machine guns? The kilos of
cocaine with the T H initials?
Watch this site.
A question still:
Does the right to access to
Federal court proceedings
extend to listen-only
telephone lines, in the time
of COVID and beyond? Should
it?
The
question has been further
raised in the ongoing Honduras
narco-trafficking case US v.
Geovanny Fuentes, which Inner
City Press has been covering
in-person in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, where it
is "in-house press."
On
the morning of March 13, Inner
City Press filed a challenge
to the cut-off of audio access
to the US v. Fuentes trial,
citing the First Amendment,
COVID and real-world politics,
see here
and below.
Late on
the evening of March 14, the
US Attorney's Office filed a
three page letter into the
docket, specifically arguing
the the call-in line be
eliminated for two entire
Witnesses and everything they
say. US Attorney's Office's
letter, now uploaded on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press has immediately
responded in opposition, here,
stating among other things
that "the US Attorney's Office
seeks to specifically ban
public access to two of their
Witnesses, while saying that a
transcript would be available
at some unspecified date
afterwards. Given that the
Office has yet to unseal
improperly redacted portions
of their filings, there is
little reason to have
confidence in the speed of
transcription, or that such
transcripts would not be too
expensive for the public or
media.
Inner City Press
after its first filing waited
nine hours, including this song,
here, to report about
it. Full first letter on Inner
City Press' DocumentCloud, here.
Inner City
Press itself obeys all
existing rules and is grateful
for the additional access as
in-house media (particularly
since it is banned
from covering the UN, which
now Constitutional rights such
as the First Amendment exist).
But others
have rights too - including
journalists and regular
citizens of Honduras. If the
SDNY prosecutors are going to
exercises essentially
universal jurisdiction for any
wire transfer that passes
through lower Manhattan, how
ever briefly, they should not
oppose access to their trials
by those impacted, for better
and worse.
Judge Castel is a
good judge, in Inner City
Press' experience. When
petitioned he has ordered the
unsealing of certain court
documents, in a North Korea crypto-currency
conference case and the tech /
child sex sentencing
of Peter Bright former of
ArsTechnica, both of which
Inner City Press covered and requested.
And Judge Castel is certainly
in the mainstream in his March
12 psoition. But should it be
rethought? Is there a right?
Should there be? Watch this
site.
The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379
(Castel).
***
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