Tegucigalpa: Former Honduran president
Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a June 2009 coup, plans to return to the Central American nation next week following the dismissal of corruption charges against him earlier this month.
Zelaya, who has been in exile in the Dominican
Republic since January 2010, will return home sometime between
May 27 and May 29, one of his aides told reporters on Monday.
The former leader's return will be marked by a "large
mobilization of the resistance" to the coup that ousted Zelaya
on June 28, 2009, said the aide, Rasel Tome.
An appeals court panel on May 2 dismissed charges of
fraud and falsifying documents against Zelaya, a decision
welcomed by the Organization of American States.
The ruling paved the way for the Central American
country's return to the OAS, which had stipulated that Zelaya
be first allowed to come back home. Honduras was ousted from
the regional body after toppling its president.
A judge had previously revoked arrest warrants against
Zelaya, who claimed the charges against him were politically
motivated and was not prepared to return to Honduras until he
was guaranteed immunity from legal action.
The Honduran military bundled him out of the country
on a plane after he dismissed an order from the Supreme Court
to cancel a referendum to rewrite the constitution, in what
his critics characterised as a bid to seek a re-election.
Porfirio Lobo was elected president in November 2009,
amid a political impasse between the de facto government that
followed the coup and Zelaya, who returned secretly and took
refuge in the Brazilian embassy seeking to be reinstated.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 09:46