Ex-Honduras first lady sentenced to prison for embezzlement

Sep 21, 2022, 2:03 AM | Updated: 3:00 pm

FILE - Former Honduran first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo leaves court after her conviction on corruption charges in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Aug. 20, 2019. A judge sentenced Bonilla de Lobo to 14 years in prison Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, on corruption charges, the second time Bonilla had been sentenced. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez, File)

(AP Photo/Elmer Martinez, File)

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A judge sentenced former Honduran First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo to 14 years in prison Wednesday on corruption charges, the second time Bonilla had been sentenced.

Bonilla will be allowed to appeal the sentence within 20 days, court spokesman Carlos Silva said.

The first time Bonilla was convicted and sentenced to 58 years in prison, but the conviction was tossed out due to inconsistencies in the process. She was re-tried in March and convicted of fraud and embezzlement.

She embezzled more than $1 million in government funds between 2010 and 2014, when her husband Porfirio Lobo was president. Last year, the United States government barred former president Lobo from entering the country due to allegations of drug trafficking.

In July, Bonilla and Lobo’s 23-year-old son Said Omar Lobo Bonilla was killed along with three others when they were ambushed by gunmen leaving a club in the capital.

Bonilla’s private secretary Saúl Escobar was also sentenced Wednesday to seven years and three months in prison for fraud.

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