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The Supreme Court of Justice confirms the sentence of Sergio Rodríguez Orellana, an employee of the Atala Zablah family, as co-perpetrator of the murder of Berta Cáceres and sentences him to 30 years in prison.
After more than six years of waiting, the full bench of the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice has confirmed the conviction of Sergio Ramón Rodríguez Orellana, ratifying his guilt of aggravated murder for the crime against our sister Berta Cáceres and the sentence of 30 years in prison. The full bench has reclassified his responsibility as perpetrator by inducement.
On November 29, 2018, Chamber I of the Sentencing Court found Sergio Rodríguez guilty as co-author of the murder of Berta Cáceres. During the trial, indisputable evidence of his communications extracted from his telephone and call records were presented, which showed his control of the criminal act through the identification, surveillance and harassment of Berta Cáceres, actions that were essential for the commission of the crime.
In November 2024, her case was referred to the full Supreme Court of Justice in the absence of unanimity on the ratification of the sentence, after a sentence in which magistrates Nelson Mairena and Walter Miranda handed down a sentence with benefits in favor of the murderer. Today, his guilt has been confirmed.
Sergio Rodríguez is part of the criminal structure that has terrorized the Lenca community of Río Blanco since 2013, with the intention of imposing the illegal Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, for the economic benefit of the Atala Zablah family.
Their role, disguised as environmental and social management, was to infiltrate, antagonize and attack the Lenca community and to monitor and identify the leaders as targets for attack by the Atala Zablah criminal enterprise.
From COPINH, we reaffirm our commitment to justice in Honduras and the vindication of the rights of the indigenous peoples for which Berta Cáceres fought. We will not lower our guard until all those responsible for her murder, including the Atala Zablah family, face the consequences of their crimes.
COPINH demands that the State of Honduras fulfill its obligations and prosecute and punish all those responsible for the crime of Berta Cáceres and related crimes, as well as respect the rights of the Lenca people.
Berta lives on, the struggle continues!
La Esperanza, Intibucá, 7 February, 2025
“With the ancestral strength of Berta, Lempira, Mota, Iselaca and Etempica,
our voices rise up, full of life, justice, freedom, dignity and peace.”
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