The Honduran Supreme Court on Monday unanimously approved the extradition of the nation’s former president to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.
The initial extradition request for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was approved by a judge on March 16, but Hernandez’s team brought the request to the country’s Supreme Court, where it was approved. No extradition date has been set.
Tomas Zambrano, the congressional leader of Hernandez’s National Party, reminded the public that Monday’s order only meant Hernandez was approved to stand trial in the U.S. and was not a guilty verdict.
“What was declared today is the extradition. He was not declared guilty or innocent,” Zambrano told local television station HCH, according to a translation provided by the New York Times. “As nationalists and Hondurans, we express our solidarity with the family of president Hernández.”
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Hernandez accepted bribes worth millions of dollars from the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for smuggling over 550 tons of cocaine into the U.S. over the past 18 years, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege. He has also been charged with illegal possession of a firearm.
The former president is also accused of accepting money from his younger brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez, who is serving a life sentence for a drug trafficking conviction in New York. Hernandez has additionally been tied to former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who allegedly donated over $1 million to Hernandez’s presidential campaign in 2013 in exchange for smuggling cocaine.
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Hernandez, who has denied all charges, was arrested last month at the request of the U.S. and will remain in Honduran custody until authorities coordinate his transfer into the U.S.
