PBI-Honduras accompanies Guapinol and San Pedro communities as verdict to be delivered today

This morning, PBI-Honduras tweeted: “PBI accompanies the communities of Guapinol and San Pedro in the moments before knowing the decision of the 8 defenders of the river. Restlessness, but also hope and courage, are currently flooding the camp at the door of the judicial palace in Tocoa.”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied for more than 3 years the defenders of the Guapinol River. It says: “We remain by your side and we trust that the liberation and integral reparation established by the United Nations will be fulfilled.”

It is feared that the defenders could be sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Lawyer Edy Tabora says: “They want to teach and send a lesson to all the social movements in the country that the extractive company is powerful enough to criminalize all those people who oppose energy mining projects in the country.”

Tabora has further commented that the Honduran Public Ministry has shown in the Guapinol case that “it is at the service of private enterprise and that the extractive company dictates the guidelines of what to do in each judicial process.”

That said, Tabora says that the trial legally “is won”, so the ruling should be an acquittal in favor of the environmentalists.

We will be updating this page as news of the judgement becomes available.

8:53 am – PBI-Honduras is present as the bus carrying the Guapinol River defenders arrives at the court house.

9:24 am – PBI-Honduras waits inside the courtroom.

10:18 am – The defenders arrive in the courtroom.