TEGUCIGALPA – A priest in western Honduras filed a criminal complaint accusing eight police officers of torturing him and two of his brothers.

The incident took place Dec. 26, the Rev. Marco Aurelio Lorenzo told reporters as he was living the prosecutor’s office in the northern city of San Pedro Sula.

Lorenzo, the pastor of Santa Barbara Catholic Church in Macuelizo, said he and his brothers were traveling to visit their parents the day after Christmas when they decided to pull over for a rest.

While sitting in their vehicle at the side of the road, the three men were accosted by eight police officers.

“They beat us on every part of our bodies,” Lorenzo said, adding that the cops didn’t realize he was a priest until they took the three brothers to a nearby hospital.

Lorenzo is known in western Honduras for his activism on behalf of human rights and the environment.

The Honduran national police force is already under pressure after cops have been caught engaging in drug trafficking, extortion and auto theft.

Demands for a thorough overhaul of the force intensified after eight police were named as the chief suspects in the Oct. 22 murders of two unarmed college students who were killed while driving home from a party.

One of the victims was the son of Julieta Castellanos, chancellor of the National Autonomous University of Honduras. EFE