00:00Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez will stand trial in that country
00:04while the Prosecutor's Office and the Attorney General's Office maintain the charges of multi-million dollar embezzlement
00:10and warn of alleged threats during the trial.
00:13We provide further details below with Karim Duarte.
00:16The hearing against former President Juan Orlando Hernandez will resume on August 18 in the Pandora 2 case,
00:24which investigates the embezzlement of approximately 10.8 million between 2010 and 2013.
00:31The Prosecution and the Attorney General's Office presented 49 pieces of evidence.
00:37What will happen during this period is a reasonable review period requested by the defense
00:43so that next Tuesday, August 18,
00:47the defense team can submit the appropriate objections regarding the 49 pieces of evidence presented by the Prosecution.
00:54The case could become more complicated for Hernandez
00:57if the Attorney General's Office succeeds in proving the alleged threats that,
01:02according to its head, Dagoberto Aspra, Juan Orlando Hernandez directed at a prosecutor
01:08during the hearing on August 3, when he allegedly told him,
01:12I'm going to teach you a lesson.
01:14If confirmed, experts believe the judge could review his precautionary measures
01:19and even order his imprisonment.
01:21If, in the Federal Prosecutor's Office,
01:24the Attorney General of the Republic proves to the judge
01:26that Juan Orlando Hernandez threatened or intimidated a prosecutor,
01:30the judge will modify the preventative measures ordered against him
01:33and may send him to prison
01:37because it is unacceptable for a defendant,
01:40regardless of the political or economic power he may possess,
01:43to threaten a judicial official.
01:45The judiciary will never allow that,
01:47and therefore, if the Attorney General of the Republic makes that clear to the judge during the hearing,
01:52the judge will modify the conditions of his release,
01:54and it should come as no surprise that he may be required to remain in prison for the remainder of
01:59the trial.
02:00Meanwhile, the former president's defense team is seeking more time to review the evidence
02:05and hopes to secure a definitive dismissal of the case.
02:08This is similar to what happened recently with former President Porfirio Lobo
02:12and other former officials linked to the same case,
02:16whose cases were dismissed by court order.
02:19Well, we hope justice will be done, right?
02:24The defense is prepared to answer or respond to the charges,
02:27and obviously every defense team hopes for a favorable outcome.
02:34What is known is that in this same case,
02:36a former president and other former officials were granted final dismissals,
02:40which were upheld by the courts of appeals.
02:42Therefore, it is obviously to be expected that,
02:44under the same circumstances we face,
02:46the same outcome will occur.
02:49The federal prosecutor's office also presented a video of the hearing held on August 3rd,
02:54arguing that Hernandez could influence witnesses and expert witnesses
02:58due to the political power he held for years.
03:01Based on these arguments,
03:03the state continues to request that the former president be placed in pretrial detention.
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