... The defense of David Castillo, conducted by Juan Sanchez Cantillano and Ritza Antunes, representatives of the interests of the Atala Zablah family, have consummated a delaying maneuver with the objective of releasing David Castillo due to the expiration of his pretrial detention. Ritza Antunes represented Army Major Mariano Díaz, who was convicted of the murder of Berta Cáceres.

David Castillo was captured on March 2, 2018. On September 2, the extended term of the pretrial detention of two and a half years expires. However, the trial against him has not taken place because of the delaying tactics of his defence and the permissiveness of the Honduran judiciary.

A clear example of this is that the preliminary hearing that should have been held on 4 April 2019 has not been concluded to date because of the bad faith manoeuvres of Castillo’s defence which have postponed it on three occasions. About a year and four months have passed due to this delay...