Honduran police officers escort Juan Orlando Hernandez, center, to Toncontin International Airport (TGU) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 21.Photographer: Tomas Ayuso/Bloomberg

The former president of Honduras wants to call former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama as well as convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman as defense witnesses against US drug charges.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was a head of state from 2014 until January, appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to plead not guilty to engaging in an 18-year drug-trafficking conspiracy. After the arraignment, Hernandez’s lawyer Raymond Colon spoke to reporters outside the courthouse and proclaimed his client’s innocence.

Colon said Guzman, the former head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel who is now serving a life sentence in the US, could be called to testify that he never met or dealt with Hernandez. Trump and Obama would say that Hernandez was a strong ally in the fight against drug trafficking, the lawyer suggested.

“They acknowledged his activities and my client was the first president to enforce or agree to the extradition of individuals in Honduras that were trafficking narcotics,” Colon said “We need to bring that out and maybe that’s our way out of a life sentence.”

Bloomberg