Majority of dead Honduras inmates were awaiting trial

The inmates whose bodies were carried piece-by-piece from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded prison where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report.

More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country’s capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report sent by the Honduran government this month to the UN.

A fire started by an inmate tore through the prison on Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys. Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world’s deadliest prison fire in a century.