Public statement on the arbitrary extension of preventive detention in the Guapinol case.

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The Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa, in view of the resolution of the Supreme Court of Justice regarding the extension of the preventive detention of the defenders of Guapinol, expresses:

The Committee, together with the popular assembly of neighbors of the different communities of Sector San Pedro, Guapinol, Cayo Sierra, La Nueva Lempira, and neighborhoods of Tocoa, energetically reject the official letter No. 1293-2021-SP-CSJ in which the Criminal Chamber justifies the extension of preventive detention against the eight defenders for six more months.

This Committee regrets and condemns the decision of the magistrates of the Criminal Chamber to rule in favor of the Public Prosecutor's Office/Inversiones los Pinares and ECOTEK and against the defenders without a convincing technical legal basis, while having shelved an appeal for protection of the defenders for more than a year. The court does not make a legal assessment of its decision, it simply limits itself to point out articles of the procedural code. The same code states these articles alone should not be considered as due motivation, therefore, the ruling is null and void.

Today, we feel the arbitrary decision of the Court with indignation, added to so many others in these two years of deprivation of liberty of the defenders. Our call continues to be to respect the principles of national and international law, as well as the call to the communities, families, organizations of the municipality, the Aguan region, the country and the international community to join energies in the struggle for the freedom of the defenders as well as the liberation of the territories conquered by the corruption and violence of Lenir Perez and the Government of Honduras.

Trujillo Colon, August 26, 2021.

#GuapinolResists #GuapinolResiste

Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa.