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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was pardoned by United States President Donald Trump last year after a narcotrafficking conviction, will return home to face corruption charges, according to a judicial source on Monday.
Hernandez is expected to return to Honduras on July 31 and appear before a court on August 3 after an international arrest warrant issued against him was lifted.
Prosecutors accuse the former president of fraud and money laundering over the alleged diversion of $2 million in public funds to finance his 2014 presidential election campaign.
In a post last week, Hernandez denied the allegations, insisting the case had no legal basis and that he would return to clear his name. He also said he had no intention of contesting future elections.
Hernandez, who governed Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was convicted in the United States in 2024 of helping to smuggle hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the country and was sentenced to 45 years in prison before being granted a presidential pardon by Donald Trump.
The pardon came ahead of Honduras’ November presidential election, which was won by conservative candidate Nasry Asfura after Trump threatened to cut US aid if Asfura was defeated.
Honduras’ left-leaning government had extradited Hernandez to the United States in 2022, accusing him of overseeing a “narco-state” and using security forces to facilitate large-scale cocaine trafficking.
When announcing the pardon, Trump alleged, without providing evidence, that Hernandez had been the target of a politically motivated campaign orchestrated under former US President Joe Biden.
