Pedro Mejía Suffers Unjust Imprisonment

The trouble started for Pedro Mejía in February of 1998 when he was called to a meeting with top officials and lawyers of his company. They asked him to resign or face imprisonment for criminal charges the company lawyers were developing against him. The owner of this company, one of the richest and most powerful men in Honduras, had recently been accused and convicted of serious environmental crimes based on an investigation carried out by Pedro's brother, Juan Mejía.

Among other things, the accusation endangered some of the businessman's loans involving millions of dollars from the World Bank and other sources. Many believe that the ultimatum given to Pedro Mejía, was a form of revenge for his brother's actions. Honduran law requires employers to pay a month's salary for every year the employee has worked for that company.They were trying to force Pedro to resign in order to avoid this payment,

Pedro Mejía was held in prison for three years, though he was never convicted of a crime.

a significant sum in Honduras given the 10 years Pedro had been with the company. Pedro refused to resign and paid the consequences.

Within a month of that meeting, in March of 1998, he was arrested and imprisoned. Though the charges against him were proved false, another case was brought against him in a different court. One of the crimes of he was accused of was stealing from the company in 1986, before he even started to work there! Pedro was in prison for over 3 years, awaiting the final resolution of his case and all of its appeals. During this time, Pedro's family suffered continual harassment, apparently from thugs hired by this wealthy businessman. A plot was uncovered, and documented, of an attempt at Pedro Mejía's life. All these abuses occurred despite the fact that Pedro was never proved guilty of anything.

While in the United States, the principle of the judicial system is "innocent until proven guilty," the opposite is true in Honduras. More than 90% of the prison population in the country has never been sentenced. Often when a sentence comes through, the prisoner will already have served more than the term of the sentence. In some cases, this happens simply because of the extremely inefficient, slow written court case system that Honduras uses; in others, it is because of manipulation by members of the powerful elite, like this wealthy businessman intent on punishing Pedro Mejía.

AJS Involvement
the Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, adopted this case as an example of both the way in which the justice system is manipulated and abused by the elite for their own selfish interests and the intolerable delay of justice so many of Hondurans suffer. The goals of the case are the freedom of Pedro Mejia, to achieve fair compensation for being fired and imprisoned unjustly, and to push the Honduran justice system to make changes to assure that these injustices will not be repeated.

Our lawyers worked closely with the Mejía family, visiting Pedro regularly to ensure his safety, offering legal advice, preparing documents denouncing the injustices he has suffered before the Honduran Public Ministry and Supreme Court of Justice and, most recently, preparing a case to be brought to international attention.

Latest News
In early December, 2001, Pedro Mejia was released from prison! Freedom is sweet, though it does not come without struggle. Because of this experience, Pedro has little chance of finding work, despite the fact that he was found innocent at the end. He also struggles with feelings of insecurity. "How do I explain to my daughters why I was in prison if I was innocent? They are too young to understand," he said. His time in prison, on the other hand, opened his eyes to the presence of God as well as to the injustice that many of his fellow prisoners were suffering. He has agreed to do everything possible to make changes in the distorted judicial system in this country.

His release from prison was only a step along the way. ASJ and partner IJM (the International Justice Mission), with Pedro's support, are bringing a case to the Interamerican Court against Honduras. The case intends to show that in Honduras there are not resources to obtain a fair and speedy trial, which is a human rights violation. Also, in Honduran prisons, there is no separation of prisoners, so people like Pedro who are awaiting trial are held with people convicted of murder and other violent crimes, which is another violation of human rights. If this case is successful, it is possible that Honduras would be pressured to initiate reforms in the judicial system to correct these problems.

Please pray for wisdom for AJS, healing and strength for Pedro Mejía, and for God´s intervention in the Honduran justice system.

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