[HNA] [Fwd: COFADE Denounces the illegal detention of 9 minors signalled as participants in the Resistance]

[Tom Loudon]

**Please share with your networks*


July 2, 2010

The Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras 
(COFADEH) denounce the illegal overnight detention by police of nine 
minors associated with the resistance movement*

/Nine males between the ages of 12 and 17 were detained yesterday 
afternoon and held in jail overnight in a facility unsuitable for 
minors, without the notification of their parents/guardians or the 
Honduran Institute for Children and Families (INHFA). They were not 
charged with any criminal offense and were released at approximately 
12:00 noon today after a visit by a COFADEH lawyer who petitioned for 
their release for several hours. These youth are reported to have 
participated in at least one march of the resistance movement, as part 
of a group of young people organizing educational activities encouraging 
reflection upon the political and social realities currently being 
experienced in Honduras. *COFADEH is manifesting grave concern to the 
national and international human rights community in the face of the 
continued criminalization and repression of young people and members of 
the Resistance in Honduras by state forces, such as the police, since 
the coup d’etat on June 28, 2009, repression which has continued in a 
targeted, violent manner under the government of President Porfirio Lobo 
in 2010. *//Their testimony is below./


*TESTIMONY*

We, the undersigned [names are committed to protect the victims’ 
identities as minors], who are minors, Honduran, and residents of the 
Sanai neighborhood of Comayagüela, freely and of our own volition appear 
before the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in 
Honduras (COFADEH) and offer the following testimony.

*FIRST*: Yesterday the 1st of July between 3:30 and 4:00 PM we were in 
the Sinaí neighborhood in the house of our friend Jankel Alejandro, 
where we were having a meeting and celebration related to our school, 
where various Preventative Police officers arrived in patrol vehicles 
marked No. 103 and 109 and forced the lock of the house and entered 
without presenting any kind of warrant. They proceeded to search us even 
though we weren’t carrying anything that illegal, they handcuffed our 
wrists with our shoelaces and loaded us onto their patrol trucks, taking 
us in the direction of the 5th precinct which is located in the Granja 
neighborhood.

*SECOND*: When we arrived at the above mentioned precinct they ordered 
us to get down from the trucks, as they watched us get down they 
proceeded to hit us one by one. We were in that precinct for about 10 
minutes then they moved us to the 4th precinct which is in the Belén 
neighborhood, they took us to the jail cell there where we were detained 
for approximately eight hours.

*THIRD*: We hereby authorize COFADEH to carry out any follow-up actions 
that they consider to be necessary.

For the record, we sign this testimony in the city of Tegucigalpa, 
Municipality of the Central District, on the 2nd day of July, 2010. 
[Signatures on the original document]


*Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras
C  O  F  A  D  E  H
Barrio La Plazuela, Ave. Cervantes, Casa No. 1301. Apdo. Postal No. 
1243, Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., Honduras, C.A.
Tel/Fax *(504) 220-5280* / *220-7147*    E-Mail: *cofadeh at sdnhon.org.hn 
<mailto:cofadeh at sdnhon.org.hn>*      Sitio Web: *www.cofadeh.org 
<http://www.cofadeh.org>

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