Honduras court finds 3 guilty of plotting to assassinate president

A court in Honduras has convicted one Mexican and two Hondurans for conspiring to kill the country's President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a judicial spokesman and security officials said on Sunday (19 March).

Hernandez has extradited more than a dozen drug lords since taking office.

"They were formulation to conflict a boss as an outcome of a fight (on drug gangs) that he launched given he took bureau in 2014," a security official, who was not authorised to talk on the matter, said.

The court has found that the Mexican, Jesus Estrada, and the duo – Victor Flores and Jose Contreras – from Honduras had planned to kill the president in September 2014.

They had planned the attack on Honduran leader when he was scheduled to land in a helicopter in his home town of Gracias, 200 km (124 miles) west of Tegucigalpa, Supreme Court spokesman Melvin Duarte said and added that Flores and Contreras have also been convicted of criminal conspiracy.

The three, who were arrested in 2015 from different places, were convicted late Saturday night. Duarte said that they will be sentenced on 24 April.

According to Honduras' penal code, the punishment for plotting to kill the president is up to six years, while those with criminal conspiracy charges can face up to 10 years.

Hernandez, who took office in January 2014, has extradited at least 13 drug lords to the US. Five of those were heads of the Valle brothers' cartel, which was associated with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, previously controlled by Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman was deported to the US from Mexico in January. US prosecutors have sought life imprisonment for him and have also asked for an order to seize $14bn (£11.3bn) of his assets.