UN rapporteur 'appalled' by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine
Source: The Guardian
UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine
Legal and human rights experts condemn decision to find six activists guilty of crimes against mining company
Nina Lakhani
Wed 9 Feb 2022 23.44 GMT
Six Honduran environmentalists have been found guilty of crimes against a mining company, in a case widely condemned by legal and human rights experts.
The activists, from the small community of Guapinol, have been held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years after opposing an iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people.
The huge open-pit mine, which is owned by one of the country’s most powerful couples, sits inside a protected national park in Tocoa, a municipality in the country’s northern Colón department. It was sanctioned without community consultation in a process mired by irregularities, according to international experts.
On Wednesday, in a two-to-one divided decision, the court ruled that José Márquez, Kelvin Romero Martínez, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Orbín Nahúm Hernández, and Ewer Alexander Cedillo Cruz were guilty of criminal damage and illegal detention of the company’s security chief. Two men, Arnold Alemán and Jeremías Martínez, were absolved of the same charges.
Amnesty International, which considers the Guapinol environmentalists to be prisoners of conscience, described the verdict as “outrageous”.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/honduras-environmentalists-guilty-crimes-mining-company
