TEGUCIGALPA – The Honduran Supreme Court has ruled that ousted President Manuel Zelaya cannot be reinstated unless he first stands trial on charges of violating the constitution, a judicial official said Thursday.

The non-binding ruling is to be sent this week to Congress, which under the terms of a U.S.-brokered agreement will begin debate Dec. 2 on whether or not to reinstate Zelaya, who was ousted by the Supreme Court and Congress on June 28.

The opinion, which was similar to an earlier decision issued in August, was approved Wednesday night by 14 of the 15 justices, a high court official told Efe without specifying who voted against the ruling and why.

The Supreme Court said in its August ruling that Zelaya, who is currently holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa after making a surprise return to the country on Sept. 21, must face charges filed against him by the Attorney General’s Office.

An arrest warrant is pending against Zelaya, who faces charges related to his efforts to hold a referendum on the idea of forming an assembly to change the Honduran constitution.

Former President Manuel Zelaya proceeded with efforts to hold the plebiscite even though the Supreme Court had earlier ruled it to be illegal and unconstitutional, and he hoped to eventually have a binding vote on the proposal added to the November ballot.

Just days after personally taking possession of thousands of ballots to be used in the referendum, Zelaya was arrested and flown to Costa Rica by the Honduran military.


In the eyes of Constituional scholars and most Hondurans, Zelaya’s ouster was not a coup. The soldiers who escorted Zelaya from the presidential palace were enforcing a Supreme Court order after Zelaya refused to comply with their earlier order banning his planned referendum on revising the constitution to allow for unlimited presidential terms. The Constitution calls for immediate disempowerment of any official who does so.


Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution says “Any citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch cannot be President or Vice-President again. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those who support such violation directly or indirectly, must immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”

In August, the U.S. Congress Law Library issued a report that calls the disempowerment of Zelaya, with the exception of the removal of Zelaya from the country, constitutional under Honduran law.

According to report author Norma Gutiérrez, the Honduran Congress has the power to "disapprove of the conduct of the president".

The Congress "implicitly exercised its power of constitutional interpretation in the case of Zelaya when it decided that its power to 'disapprove' the president's actions encompassed the power to remove him", the report says.

Zelaya currently enjoys the support of only about a fifth of the legislators, and Congress had before his ouster already opened an investigation into whether he was mentally fit to govern, voted to disapprove his violations of the Constitution and replaced him with Micheletti after he was ousted.


The Supreme Court’s non-binding ruling comes just days before Hondurans go to the polls to choose their next president.

Honduran supporters of Zelaya argue a free and fair vote in Sunday’s balloting is impossible given the repression imposed by the current government, which it blamed for at least a dozen deaths and numerous other human rights abuses.

Most members of the OAS and the Rio Group, a hemispheric club that excludes the United States and Canada, say they won’t recognize the elections as valid without Zelaya’s reinstatement beforehand.

The U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, for his part, said last week at the end of a visit to Honduras that Washington supports both the presidential election and the now-fractured accord meant to resolve the crisis sparked by the coup.

During his two-day visit, Craig Kelly met separately with Zelaya and Micheletti to review implementation of the pact signed Oct. 30 by representatives of the two men.

Zelaya pronounced the pact dead early this month after Micheletti pressed ahead with formation of national unity government, which was mandated by a timetable, before Congress addressed the matter of restoring the Zelaya. Zelaya refused to submit any candidates to the unity government he had agreed to.

Kelly’s then-superior, Thomas Shannon, said early this month that Washington would recognize the election winner regardless of whether Zelaya was reinstated.

Zelaya’s camp has slammed the United States’ “ambiguous” position and says it has been unwilling to exercise the enormous leverage it has over Honduras, an impoverished nation whose economy is almost entirely dependent – through trade, aid and remittances – on the United States.