PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE TO CORRUPTION IN HONDURASJose Humberto Palacios Guifarro＊

I. UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION AND HONDURAS
Honduras signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on May 17, 2004. The Convention
was ratified on May 23, 2005. The country of Honduras has significant legislation related with the battle
against corruption, most of it included in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. For example,
Honduras has an institute with its respective law1, used to control and investigate the administrative
component of any public institution or public official. The name of the institution is Supreme Accounts
Tribunal 2 , and its basic function, as before said, is the yearly control and investigation of public institutions
and officials. The public officials have the obligation, when entering public office, to report all personal
assets, debts, accounts and anything relevant for further investigations. They also have the obligation to
immediately report any asset increase, including significant purchases and salary increases. Anotherimportant obligation of public officials is to yearly report the status of their assets and duly explain anyabnormal increase. The Honduran Supreme Accounts Tribunal, also has the obligation to investigate anyabnormal situation occurring within a public institution or related with a public official, if administrative
responsibility is verified, the respective fines shall be imposed. If criminal responsibility is verified, the information and evidence must be remitted immediately to the criminal public prosecutor’s office or the civil
public prosecutor’s office.
Honduras also has the National Council Against Corruption3 , with its respective law4 . This institution isan independent council that investigates corruption cases presented before them by individuals or by any
type of institution. Once the investigation is concluded, the council decides if the information and evidence
is presented before the public criminal prosecutor’s office.
Honduras has the Public Civil Prosecutors Office5; with its respective law6 , this institution prosecutes in
the administrative area, the responsibility derived of irregular actions executed by public officials. Theirmain mission is to recuperate assets and execute the proper actions in order to seize these assets.
Honduras has the Public Corruption Prosecutors Office, which is part of the Public Prosecutors Officeand part of the Public Ministry Office7, with its respective law8 . The responsibility of the office is to receive
possible corruption commission information from the National Anti-Corruption Council, from the Supreme
Accounts Tribunal and from any common citizen, and to begin the proper investigation and proceed toprosecute the public official responsible of the corruption case. The Public Criminal Corruption Prosecutors
Office can execute any action without receiving outside information, meaning it can begin its own investigations and proceed in the criminal prosecution process.
Many of the problems faced by the country of Honduras implementing UNCAC exist because of thelack of funds required to investigate and prosecute the great number of corruption cases that exist in thiscountry. The extremely low level of education of the general population of the country of Honduras, is also
Judge, Tegucigalpa City Criminal Courthouse.

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1 Ley Orgánica del Tribunal Superior del Cuentas de Honduras, Decreto No. 10-2002-E.
2 Tribunal Superior de Cuentas de Honduras.
3 Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción.

4 Ley del Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción, decreto número 7-2005.
5 Procuraduría General de la República de Honduras.

6 Ley de la Procuraduría General de la República de Honduras, decreto número 74-2000
7 Ministerio Público de Honduras.

8 Ley Orgánica del Ministerio Público de Honduras, decreto número 228-96

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considered as a significant factor. This is because the population of this country does not have a propercomplaint culture, which is definitely necessary in the battle against corruption. Other important factor
includes the high level of corrupt public officials that are inside of the system and are able effectively todiminish the success of the fight against corruption.

II. INTELLIGENCE
Honduras and its criminal justice officials have various measures to generate leads in the process ofdetecting corruption cases. The most common measure is the complaint issued by a common citizen or by
a company representative. After the complaint is received, the criminal public prosecutor orders the police
to begin the corresponding investigation process; this may include interviews with people with knowledgeof the situation or possible participants of the corruption case itself. The investigation process may also
include wiretapping; this has to be requested by a public criminal prosecutor before a judge. Honduras has
call centers that receive corruption complaints, these are located in the Presidential Ministry, in theNational Anti-Corruption Council, in the Public Criminal Prosecutors Office and inside Police Headquarters.
The most useful measure is the call centers, through which the criminal justice operators receiveuseful information to request or order further investigation tools, that will be mentioned further along inthis paper.
Honduras has enacted article9 number 237 of the Criminal Process Law, most commonly known as thewitness protection procedure. A witness that possesses valuable information in any criminal case,including corruption cases, is ordered to be protected, taking any measure necessary to protect his or heridentity, as well as his or her physical integrity, so that he or she can make a statement before a judge intheir condition as witnesses, without the existence of any risk to his or her well-being.
If the possible witness has had any type of involvement in the corruption case, and the criminal justiceofficial considers that the information offered in the statement by the witness is much more valuable forprosecuting higher ranking corruption criminals or greater criminal corruption organizations, in comparison to the prosecution of the initial witness, Honduras has a tool located in article 28 section 510 of theCriminal Process Law, which allows for the criminal justice official to negotiate with the possible corrupt
individual, so that he can provide a useful statement, in order for higher ranking public officials to be appropriately and effectively prosecuted. This tool can also be considered as the Honduran plea bargain.
Common citizens or any other person can present their corruption complaint before the National
Council Against Corruption, the National Prosecutors Office or before the police headquarters, without
providing any personal information, although no reward is currently being offered.

III. INVESTIGATION
Honduras has been using wiretapping for a few years; the results have been positive and the tendencyis to improve each time it is implemented. The wiretapping procedure is authorized by a judge andrequested by a criminal public prosecutor utilizing a specific law11, called the Special Law of the Intervention, of Private Communications. When there is a verification of suspicious activities, the police authorities
request the criminal public prosecutor to submit a special request, in order for the criminal law judge todecide if the request fulfills all specifications established in the law. After this, the wiretapping begins; it isadmissible at trial only if all specifications and procedures are met.
Bugging is already established and regulated in the previously mentioned law; however it is not as clear
as it should be, and until today it has not been used in a trial. However, in my opinion it is a very effective
and useful tool in the battle against public corruption.

9 Artículo 237 del Código Procesal Penal, decreto número 9-99 E.

10 Artículo 28 numeral 5 del Código Procesal Penal, decreto 9-99 E

11 Ley Especial de Intervención de las Comunicaciones Privadas, decreto número 234-2011.

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161ST INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
In Honduras, undercover operations are allowed in the investigation process, as well as in trial. This isbecause article 198 and 199 of our Criminal Process Law is open in the sense that it allows the implementation and introduction at trial of any type of trustworthy evidence. Undercover investigation police officers
or others designated for that purpose, act as common citizens offering bribes to public officials. However,analysing national statistics, this is not a common practice in Honduras, reducing the effectiveness of thiscovert investigation measure. It is my personal opinion that the lack of the use of this investigation
measure is, in fact, part of the corruption practices in the country of Honduras.
In Honduras, computer software investigation is allowed in all stages of the prosecution process; harddrives, portable massive storing data devices have been retrieved and analysed, as well as e-mails.
Important information has been retrieved and used in trials in the process of obtaining positive results.
However, this tool is not used very often, perhaps because of the lack of experts in the area or because of
the same corruption cycle already explained.
In this country of Honduras all this information obtained by covert investigation measures is admissible
at trial, if it is obtained using the correct procedures established in our laws; if not, it is dismissed and it
will not be analysed or valued by the courts.
In Honduras, sting operations and controlled delivery have been used; they are extremely effective andare in fact admissible at trial. However, its use is not very common, so we believe these tools are being under-utilized in Honduras, and that situation should be addressed thoroughly.
Wiretapping, controlled delivery and under-cover operations are the most useful covert investigation
measures. I am hopeful that with the support of first world countries, such as Japan, and the useful information received by the criminal justice operators in these type of cooperation processes, we will increase
the correct use of these effective and useful covert investigation measures in order to decrease the corruption levels in developing countries.
On average, in Honduras it usually takes about six months to a year to investigate a corruption case.
Yes, we have problems expediting the investigation processes. This is due to the poor cooperation fromother institutions to provide useful, and effective information in the process of the investigation, the small
amount of funding directed towards the investigation processes and corruption from inside public institutions and officials in charge of fighting corruption.
Some institutions investigate and control other institutions in corruption cases, but the results are still
not satisfactory.

IV. PROSECUTION
The Public Criminal Prosecution Office decides whether to prosecute or not. The decision depends onwhether there is enough evidence that can indicate the probability of the commission of a corruption caseand the probability that can indicate one or several individuals as possible authors of the commission of thecorruption case. Public interest has been shown in the past as a factor; however, enough evidence is thefinal and decision-making factor in prosecuting a corruption case. Reasonable prospect would have to be
the standard in Honduras; beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard to convict.
The prosecution rate is about 50%, which translates to 60 prosecutions a month countrywide. Bothimmunity and plea-bargaining, exist in Honduras through a tool located in article 28 section 512 of theCriminal Process Law, which allows for the criminal justice official to negotiate with the prosecuted individual, so that he can make an efficient and effective statement before a judge, in order for higher ranking
public officials to be appropriately and effectively prosecuted.

V. TRIAL PROCEDURES
Honduras has a mixed adversarial system since 2002. In Honduras, it takes about one-and-a-half years
12 Artículo 28 numeral 5 del Código Procesal Penal, decreto 9-99 E127RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 98
to adjudicate a corruption case on average. Yes, we have problems expediting trials on corruption cases;
this is because of the amount of delaying measures the defence attorneys present in these types of trials,e.g., appeals. Through a series of meetings and law reforms, we have managed to reduce the amount oftime a corruption trial may take by speeding the resolution of appeals and other procedural tools utilizedby the defence attorneys to delay trials. The proof of conviction standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
The conviction rate is approximately 50%. Any type of evidence can be presented at trial, as long as it isobjectively trustworthy. The witness protection programme in Honduras consists of not including any
witness information at trial and using any type of procedure so that the witness is not visually or audiblyidentified at trial. In some rare cases, the witness is transported to another state or country.
Honduras is the second most corrupt country in the Americas, according to Transparency International. This says a lot. Not much positive information can be addressed; however, I consider some correct steps
are being taken to improve our situation. Without a doubt, effective and precise measures have to be implemented here, such as increased wiretapping, under-cover investigations, bugging, controlled deliveries,
stings and increasing the investigation of higher ranking officials, such as presidential secretaries, congressmen, magistrates, judges, public prosecutors and much more.

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