http://www.smh.com.au/world/military-chiefs-charged-over-honduran-coup-20100107-lwut.html
Military chiefs charged over Honduran coup January 8, 2010 TEGUCIGALPA: The Honduran Attorney-General has charged the country's top military chiefs with ''abuse of power'' for a coup that ousted the President, Jose Manuel Zelaya, according to a Supreme Court spokesman. The armed forces chief of staff, Romeo Vasquez Velasquez; the air force head, Venancio Cervantes; and the navy chief, Luis Javier Prince, were among those accused over the arrest and expulsion of Mr Zelaya to Costa Rica on June 28. ''They are various commanders, and the crimes are abuse of power,'' said a Supreme Court spokesman, Danilo Izaguirre. He said the court had three days to respond to the charges filed by the Attorney-General, Luis Rubi. An army spokesman said General Vasquez had called on military lawyers to take on the case. Mr Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since returning to Honduras in September, dismissed the charges as superficial and accused the de facto regime of using new tricks. ''Today, using a new stratagem, the Attorney-General who has equal or more responsibility as the soldiers, is presenting accusations . to achieve impunity for the soldiers by accusing them of minor crimes,'' Mr Zelaya said. The Supreme Court, as well as Congress and business leaders, backed the expulsion of the left-leaning Mr Zelaya during a dispute over his plans to change the constitution, which critics saw as a bid to prolong his mandate. The latest announcement came as a senior US diplomat left Honduras without comment after a two-day visit. The de facto Foreign Minister, Carlos Lopez, said the visit by Craig Kelly, the second highest US diplomat to Latin America, had been ''very constructive'', and that he had met with the de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti, for almost three hours. ''The issue of a possible resignation was not tackled,'' Mr Lopez said. Mr Kelly also met Porfirio Lobo, who won presidential elections held in November. Agence France- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
