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termination of pretrial detention: 18 months if no charges have been filed and/or 36
months if judgment has not been given, if the delay cannot be attributed to the
procedural activity of the accused. It also expands the powers of the victim to request
pretrial detention, even when the victim has no standing as a complainant.
95.
Similarly, as noted above, Decree No. 56-2013 in Honduras prohibits
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This
the use of alternatives to pretrial detention in an array of 21 offenses.
amendment means that the Public Prosecution Ministry, simply by classifying the
offense as one of those listed above, will obtain the pretrial detention of the accused
automatically and without having to establish its rational need, thereby relieving the
prosecutor of the obligation of justifying incarceration. It also formalizes recidivism as
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obligatory grounds for the imposition of pretrial detention.
96.
During its August 2013 visit to Honduras, the Rapporteurship on
Persons Deprived of Liberty noted that prior to the enactment of this law by Congress,
no study or analysis was conducted into the impact it would be sure to have on the –
already collapsed – prison system, nor into the actual future contribution it would make
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to reducing crime rates in the country.
97.
To summarize, within the broad range of modifications that have been
made to the legal frameworks for pretrial detention in the region, there are some that
directly and clearly contravene the rules and standards of the Inter-American system;
indeed, some have been addressed in decisions by the Commission and the Court in
individual cases (involving, for example, the mandatory imposition of pretrial detention
in drug related cases without an individualized analysis). There are also others that,
while less blatant, can also be considered to be in violation of those rules and standards.
Finally, there have been other reform processes that have striven, at least formally, to
abide by those parameters, but compliance with them is not always clear, particularly as
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Namely: homicide (absent mitigating circumstances), murder, parricide, rape, human trafficking,
child pornography, kidnapping, falsification of coins and banknotes, vehicle theft, assassinations of heads of
state, genocide, conspiracy, extortion, offenses related to weapons of war, terrorism, contraband (in certain
cases), fiscal fraud (in certain cases), crimes related to illegal drug trafficking, money laundering, perverting
the course of justice, and femicide.
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Alternatives to pretrial detention may not be ordered if there is a serious risk of not obtaining
the goal sought or if recidivism is involved. A person may only benefit from those measures in a single active
trial and, if a formal indictment is issued in a new action, the precautionary measure of pretrial detention must
be ordered in both sets of proceedings.
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The Inter-American Commission applauds the technical opinion issued by the Ministry of Justice
and Human Rights on July 4, 2013, in which it concluded that “Legislative Decree No. 56-2013 subverts the
precautionary measure of pretrial detention, disregards its nature and purpose, contradicts the constitutional
presumption of innocence, and turns pretrial detention into a form of advance punishment; in addition, it
worsens the precarious situation of the national prison system.” It therefore concluded that Congress should
“proceed to appoint a special committee, in conjunction with the justice sector, to evaluate the impact that
the reform is having on increased prison overcrowding and enact a new reform to reinstate the procedural
status of pretrial detention as a precautionary measure, in accordance with the applicable international
standards” (emphasis added).
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