Honduras: Amnesty International Defender fears for protesters trialled in army battalion

22 January 2018

Outisde the First Battalion of the Honduran Army, Hernán Silva of Amnesty International tells the world,

'In this moment the report I am about to give is very shocking. We are outside a First Battalion of the Honduran Army where there is, inside of this Battalion,

'This is illegal, by the Honduran laws and by International treaties.'

'They are placing on trial, inside of this battalion, two young protesters of the opposition of the regime of Mr Juan Orlando Hernández, and they are trialling them for "terrorism", "sedition", and also "attacks and damages against private property". They are supposing that they have broken some glasses on the windows of a hotel.'

'However, we come here in person, and they don't let in journalists. They don't let in human rights defenders. Nor in the condition of being their lawyers can they go in.'

'So the order is they must not allow anybody in'

'They are only on trial, basically without any kind of observation. Nor national nor international.'

'This is violating against all the international and national human rights treaties and conventions, but also against their own constitution and criminal code of Honduras.'

'I am only here waiting'

'I have already tried to go in. I am here waiting, until there is an order, to let me to go in to OBSERVE. To see if the trial is correct or not. We don't have any more power than to observe and make reports.'

'We consider as human rights defenders that they are trampling,

'I, Hernán Silva, consider that they are trampling on all the guarantees of the judicial process, against these two young people, who are on trial by the state of Honduras.'

'They do this to sow terror in the population. However, we are here and here we are going to be until these young people leave.'

'We need to see where they get taken. We don't know if they are being tortured. We don't know what kind of sentence they will give, etc.'

'We are waiting in all this, and we are going to be here til the end.'

'We are not going anywhere, until the youths.. until we too can guarantee that they are in perfect condition, that there was no torture inside. How is it that there is a court of international criminal jurisdiction inside of a battalion where there exists in Honduras a court of national jurisdiction which is where they should hold such a hearing?'

'But against these youths and other people they bring, they are thrown into these military battalions. This does not happen anywhere in the world. Nor in an African country at war. However this is happening in Honduras. This must be spoken up about. Please spread the word.'

'Honduras is in crisis. The civilian people are in crisis. They are being assassinated, killed and trialled unjustly.'