PBI-Honduras laments a police officer has not been sentenced in the femicide of Keyla Martinez in February 2021
Photo: PBI-Honduras accompanied the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) at the trial of police officer Jarol Perdomo; October 1, 2022.
On February 14, PBI-Honduras posted:
“Three years after the death of Keyla Martinez inside a police station, a sentence is still awaiting. According to her mother, Norma Rodriguez, the Siguatepeque Sentencing Court denied her information about her decision.
From PBI we show concern about the rates of impunity for femicide in Honduras (94%) and remind us of the importance of transparency in legal processes.
If you want to know more about this topic, read the following article.”
On February 8, the PBI-Honduras accompanied Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) also posted: “Yesterday, February 7, #COPINH together with various social organizations we joined the call to continue demanding justice for the murder of Keyla Martínez, who was murdered in police custody in La Esperanza, Intibucá.”
Photo: COPINH coordinator Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres calls for justice for Keyla.
Keyla Martinez, a 26-year-old nursing student, was murdered on February 7, 2021, while in police custody. She had been detained by police around 11:45 pm because of a curfew when returning home after eating with friends on a Saturday evening. There were more than 13 police officers on duty at the police station when she was killed.
On October 1, 2022, PBI-Honduras also posted:
“PBI accompanies Cofadeh [Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras] in the trial against policeman Jarol Perdomo, accused of the death of Keyla Martínez. The process had entered a recess since September 29, 2022, due to the pending amparo appeal, filed by the private prosecution, to modify the simple homicide figure to aggravated femicide. Yesterday the parties announced the conclusions of the case.
The lawyer Karol Cárdenas, who is part of the private prosecution in the case, together with the lawyer Dora Oliva, requested that ‘the Public Ministry be urged to open an investigation process against all the police officers who helped Jarol Perdomo, to modify or hide the scene of the crime and they failed in the duty of the officials, because what was appropriate at that time was to put them at the order of the Public Ministry and take care of the scene of the crime.’”
On October 17, 2022, Criterio.hn reported: “[Police officer Jarol Perdomo] was accused by the Public Ministry (MP) of aggravated femicide, but the court of La Esperanza, Intibucá, was responsible for typifying the crime as simple homicide.”
Perdomo was convicted on September 13, 2023, of reckless homicide.
We continue to follow this.
Photo: PBI-Honduras accompanied the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders (La Red Nacional de Defensoras de DDHH de Honduras) at a memorial to Keyla on the first anniversary of her murder, February 2022.
