Last Update: 8:32 pm, December 11
Main Points of the Day
- After deliberations regarding the defense’s request to reconsider, the court again rules in favor of the prosecutor’s request to add an additional charge of aggravated property damage. In their ruling, the judges clearly step outside of its mandate and adds additional arguments not made by the prosecutors in order to justify their unlawful ruling.
- The defense team pushes back on the judges with legal clarifications, arguing that the court is bias and partial towards the prosecutors and the private accusers representing mining company Inversiones Pinares. Among other arguments, the defense points out that the prosecutors do not have the authority without a formal legal complaint filed by Inversiones Pinares for damages in order to charge the water defenders with such crime.
- After a long debate, the defense recuses the court after filing a legal complaint against them for breach of public duty on November 27th following the hearing where the same court ruled that the defenders must remain in pre-trial detention.
- The trial is suspended until the Appeals court based in La Ceiba rules the recusal. Since the Honduran judiciary goes on vacation on December 15, it’s unlikely that the trial will be adjourned again until January. The Guapinol water defenders will likely spend another Christmas unjustly in prison and away from their families.
- For a Spanish summary written by a Honduran lawyer, see the Guapinol Observatory’s summaries: guapinolresiste.org/observatorio
Quote of the day
“The Supreme Court of Justice can bray if it wants as it has the tendency to frequently do. My client has the right to be tried by objective judges, impartial judges and not by vending machines owned by transnational companies. We aren’t dumbasses, your honor. You, just like the prosecutors have shown signs of partiality in favor of the Los Pinares company and for that reason, I as well on behalf of my client join the petition to recuse the court because you, not just today but on several occasions, have disqualified yourselves from hearing this case. You don’t convey confidence and it’s clear that you like the prosecutors have lost all objectivity and therefore, you cannot continue to hear this case.”
– Attorney Rodolfo Zamora