In September of last year we told you about the kidnapping charges against Belizean Joseph Budna in Guatemala. Guatemalan Police charged him for kidnapping, conspiracy and illicit association with other criminals.
According the Guatemalan press, Budna was the leader of a ring of criminals specializing in international kidnappings in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.
Well, today's edition of the Amandala newspaper reports that Budna is in a maximum security prison in Zacapa, located near the Guatemala/Honduras border, while he awaits trial on the kidnapping charge in the Supreme Court in that country.
Budna is reportedly being accused of kidnapping 19 year-old US National Luis Bryon Reyes Onofre in a scheme to solicit one million quetzals from Reyes's father, Luis August Reyes Salazar.
Budna's defense before the court is supposed to be that Reyes Onofre pretended to be kidnapped so that they his father would pay the money, but he changed his story afterwards and claimed to be abducted, taken to Honduras, and held hostage on a farm.
The father reportedly paid 2 sums of money, and that's when Reyes Onofre was safely returned.
The Amandala reports that Budna could be facing 38 years in prison on this charge, and that he still has to answer to two other kidnapping charges.
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