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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Honduran Human Rights Defender Acquitted<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img width=600 height=340 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D01537.3E468D20" alt="Description: Honduran women protest violence in the country earlier this year. "></span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Honduran women protest violence in the country earlier this year. | Photo: Reuters. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Published 11 December 2014 (2 hours 35 minutes ago) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Irma Lemus and other farmers were dropped of all charges after being accussed of extortion and illegal land grabs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Human rights defender Irma Lemus from Bajo Aguan, Honduras was declared innocent at a hearing on Wednesday. Judge Freddy Cenen Caballeron Nunez dismissed the case against Lemus citing insufficient evidence. Honduran social movements have denounced the case against Lemus and other farmers accusing the government of criminalizing activists.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Lemus is leader and adviser for the Joint Forces Rural Workers Cooperative and has worked with other organizations including the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Lemus and other farmers were charged with usurpation of land, damages to livestock and extortion. In November, Lemus said, “They should know that we are entitled to these lands to survive, the state should provide us with land where we can harvest our food, and the fact that I am an advocate of human rights does not mean that I should not have my plot of land.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On Tuesday, more than 500 people participated in a march in Tocoa, Colon in solidarity with Lemus and other farmers. Upon her acquittal, Lemus remarked that she regrets how Honduran judicial and military authorities minimize the work of human rights defenders, criminalizing and ridiculing their efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>From 2008 to 2013 there have been 125 murders of farmers and six disappeared due to the fight for land in Honduras.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>