<p>New York: Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced by a US judge on Wednesday to 45 years in prison for his conviction on drug and firearm offenses.</p><p>A Manhattan jury in March found Hernandez, 55, guilty of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect US-bound cocaine shipments belonging to traffickers he once publicly proclaimed to combat.</p><p>US District Judge Kevin Castel handed down the sentence at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.</p><p>Hernandez had faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.</p><p>Federal prosecutors had urged a life sentence, arguing it would send a message to other traffickers and their accomplices in government.</p><p>"Without corrupt politicians like the defendant, the kind of large-scale, international drug trafficking at issue in this case, and the rampant drug-related violence that follows, is difficult if not impossible," prosecutors wrote on Monday.</p>.Vying with vultures: Widespread poverty has some Hondurans living off rubbish.<p>Hernandez led Honduras, a US ally in Central America, from 2014 to 2022.</p><p>His lawyer Renato Stabile had urged a sentence of no more than 40 years, calling that effectively a life sentence, and said Hernandez would continue to fight his conviction.</p><p>"Mr. Hernandez did more to combat narcotrafficking in Honduras than any Honduran President before or since," Stabile wrote.</p><p>Hernandez has been jailed in Brooklyn since his April 2022 extradition from Tegucigalpa.</p><p>In a Tuesday night court filing, Stabile asked Castel to let Hernandez remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center while he appeals.</p><p>During a two-week trial, prosecutors said Hernandez used drug money to bribe officials and manipulate voting results during Honduras' 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. Several convicted traffickers testified they bribed Hernandez.</p><p>Testifying in his own defense, Hernandez denied taking bribes from drug cartels.</p><p>His lawyers, meanwhile, accused the convicted traffickers of being out for revenge over Hernandez's anti-drug policies.</p><p>In May, Castel denied Hernandez's bid for a new trial.</p><p>Hernandez had argued that a US drug enforcement agent mistakenly testified that cocaine trafficking had gone up, not down, during his presidency.</p><p>But the judge called that issue "immaterial" to whether Hernandez conspired with traffickers.</p><p>Hernandez's younger brother, Tony Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison in March 2021 following his conviction on drug charges.</p>
<p>New York: Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced by a US judge on Wednesday to 45 years in prison for his conviction on drug and firearm offenses.</p><p>A Manhattan jury in March found Hernandez, 55, guilty of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect US-bound cocaine shipments belonging to traffickers he once publicly proclaimed to combat.</p><p>US District Judge Kevin Castel handed down the sentence at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.</p><p>Hernandez had faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.</p><p>Federal prosecutors had urged a life sentence, arguing it would send a message to other traffickers and their accomplices in government.</p><p>"Without corrupt politicians like the defendant, the kind of large-scale, international drug trafficking at issue in this case, and the rampant drug-related violence that follows, is difficult if not impossible," prosecutors wrote on Monday.</p>.Vying with vultures: Widespread poverty has some Hondurans living off rubbish.<p>Hernandez led Honduras, a US ally in Central America, from 2014 to 2022.</p><p>His lawyer Renato Stabile had urged a sentence of no more than 40 years, calling that effectively a life sentence, and said Hernandez would continue to fight his conviction.</p><p>"Mr. Hernandez did more to combat narcotrafficking in Honduras than any Honduran President before or since," Stabile wrote.</p><p>Hernandez has been jailed in Brooklyn since his April 2022 extradition from Tegucigalpa.</p><p>In a Tuesday night court filing, Stabile asked Castel to let Hernandez remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center while he appeals.</p><p>During a two-week trial, prosecutors said Hernandez used drug money to bribe officials and manipulate voting results during Honduras' 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. Several convicted traffickers testified they bribed Hernandez.</p><p>Testifying in his own defense, Hernandez denied taking bribes from drug cartels.</p><p>His lawyers, meanwhile, accused the convicted traffickers of being out for revenge over Hernandez's anti-drug policies.</p><p>In May, Castel denied Hernandez's bid for a new trial.</p><p>Hernandez had argued that a US drug enforcement agent mistakenly testified that cocaine trafficking had gone up, not down, during his presidency.</p><p>But the judge called that issue "immaterial" to whether Hernandez conspired with traffickers.</p><p>Hernandez's younger brother, Tony Hernandez, was sentenced to life in prison in March 2021 following his conviction on drug charges.</p>