Chief prosecutor of Honduras resigns

The head of the state prosecution service in Honduras and his deputy resigned on 25 June, apparently for their inability to cope with widespread crime and ahead of a parliamentary initiative to have the chief prosecutor sacked, media reported. Luis Alberto Rubí, the state's ranking prosecutor (Fiscal-General) and head of the Public Ministry that investigates and prosecutes crimes on the state's behalf, resigned as a parliamentary commission investigating the Public Ministry recommended an impeachment initiative that day, Agence France-Presse and local media reported on 27 June. His term was to end in May 2014, and he stated in his resignation letter to parliament that he was satisfied he had done his duty, which included "maintaining the rule of law and the Public Ministry's autonomy." The deputy-chief prosecutor Roy Urtecho López also resigned "to avoid a crisis in Honduras," AFP reported. The parliamentary security affairs committee earlier attributed to Mr Rubí a range of shortcomings including a "serious failure" to carry out his duties, lack of coordination with other judicial bodies and "inadequate administration" of budgets allocated to the prosecution service, the daily La Tribuna reported on 25 June. An Intervening Committee (Comisión interventora) was apparently the body that informed parliament earlier in June of budget anomalies in the Public Ministry; that committee was to administer the Public Ministry provisionally to the end of July and parliament was not immediaetly voting to appoint a new chief prosecutor and deputy-prosecutor, El Heraldo reported on 28 June. On 26 June, President Porfirio Lobo Sosa insisted while speaking on television that crime was falling in Honduras and the Governmet had the technology now to fight extortion, one of the country's most widespread and oppressive practices, La Prensa reported. The President listed some of the actions taken against crime, including sending the army onto the streets in several districts in the framework of Operation Liberty (Operación Libertad), which began in April 2013.