Uferco chief challenged in order to remove him from the case against former mayor Nasry Asfura

The head of the Specialized Prosecution Unit against Corruption Networks (Uferco), Luis Javier Santos, was challenged so that he would be removed from the proceedings against former mayor Nasry Asfura, whose initial hearing begins this Monday.

The information was confirmed to TSi news by Asfura’s defense attorney, Dagoberto Aspra, who said that he had been filing for recusal since Friday through the electronic platform of the Judicial Circuit for Organized Crime and Corruption.

“We have managed to sustain this recusal and we presented it on Friday and now at 7 in the morning we will present it in writing,” he declared early on Monday.

In the document, accompanied by the evidence, “we are challenging Mr. Luis Javier Santos for being included in the cause of article 83, numeral 12, which establishes having received, either personally or through an intermediary, a benefit from one of the parties,” said the defense attorney.

The recusal includes Santos’ roommate, Iris Mariel Budde, who was appointed as general secretary of the Infrastructure and Transportation Secretariat on April 7, 2022, two months after the current government took power.

“We want this person to step aside from the case (against Asfura), in which we are betting on the principle of objectivity that must govern the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which are included in its law,” said Aspra.

The defense attorney also pointed out that with the recusal of prosecutor Santos “we are strengthening a concept that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has been kind enough to ask us to strengthen, and that is political motivation.”

In this regard, he argued that the case against Asfura is “politically motivated (because), first of all, the person who is leading this accusation is a person who is included in this cause for recusal and linked to the current government, which is one of the parties in this process.”

Regarding the appeal filed by the defense, “which is the declination of jurisdiction,” Aspra said that it is already being processed in the Court of Appeals, “we have already been notified of its admission.”

He was also informed of the excuse of a magistrate who “at one time served as a judge of letters and took the statements of advance evidence,” but “that is progressing, we believe that this resolution can be issued quickly,” he added.

Asfura, who served as mayor of the Honduran capital for two consecutive terms during the governments of Juan Orlando Hernández, was accused by the Public Ministry through Uferco for his alleged participation in a scheme of embezzlement of public funds and money laundering, which the National Party described as political persecution .

The initial hearing is scheduled for this Monday at 9:00 a.m. in the courts located on Los Próceres Boulevard, which were heavily guarded by members of the National Police.

Reaction of prosecutor Santos

Asked upon his arrival at the courts for Organized Crime and Corruption, the head of Uferco told reporters that he does not consider himself included in the grounds established in the recusal document, “therefore we will appear at the hearing.”

However, if his hierarchical superior, that is, the Attorney General, speaks out and says that he cannot be at the hearing, “well, I will withdraw.”

Although he also clarified that “there is still no pronouncement on the admissibility” of the recusal.