| ROATAN & BAY ISLANDS VISITORS & TRAVEL GUIDE | ||
| ROATANET.COM |
|
|
Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 25-Jun-2005 |
| From: | Dave Waltz [davidwaltz.....net] |
| Subject: | [roatan] Honduran Justice |
Friends: Twenty-seven months ago, on the day before Easter, my wife was attacked at our Roatan home by three armed men. They pistol whipped her in the face. Robbery was the motive. Shortly afterward, the Honduran police arrested three men and charged them with the crime. One of them, seventeen years old, was released because he was a minor. The other two have been in jail in LaCeiba for almost exactly two years now. This assault was quite a sensation at the time, primarily because it involved violence upon a woman, and a gringa at that. There was outrage. Meetings were held. The incident even prompted a reward offered by local businesses. Sadly, this kind of violence is much more frequent now on Roatan. On Monday 20th June, in LaCeiba, these men were brought before a three-judge tribunal to be found guilty or innocent. The Honduran government actually paid for a plane ticket for my wife to attend. Under considerable stress from the face-to-face confrontation, she testified before the judges and identified the men as her attackers. Government attorneys (the fiscalia) produced evidence against them. After two years of delay, the judges retired to make their decision. Our lawyer was confident that the case would end with a conviction. He spoke of the normal sentence in this cases as being five to seven years in prison. The men were found not guilty. We have not received any explanation of the tribunal's reasoning. I do not intend to comment or speculate on their actual guilt or innocence. I only know that one thing is true - SOMEONE BEAT UP MY WIFE. I think that these men must have one of two opinions about Honduran Justice. They are either angry because they were wrongly jailed for two years, or smugly confident that crime does indeed pay in Honduras. The real guilty men do exist. Whomever they are, I think they will agree with the latter opinion. And so do I. http://www.roatanet.com To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roatan/ roatan- : | |
Click Here to Go Back
Find hotels, resorts, diving, real estate, maps, news, photos,
chat, tours and weather in Honduras.
Roatan and the Bay Islands are the place to visit!
© 2008 Roatanet.com, All Rights Reserved.