Zelaya claims he's being tortured

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Honduras's ousted president Manuel Zelaya says he and his supporters in Tegucigalpa were being threatened by mercenaries with designs of assassinating him.

Zelaya, holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital since Monday, told The Miami Herald that mercenaries likely would to storm the embassy to kill him.

"We are being threatened with death," he said.

Zelaya was deposed at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country Monday. At the embassy, he said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state.

Witnesses also told the Herald said that soldiers used a device to emit a loud shrill noise for a short time on Tuesday.

Honduran police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said he doesn't know anything about any radiation devices being used against Zelaya.

"He says there are mercenaries against him? Using some kind of apparatus?" Cerrato said. "No, no, no, no. Sincerely: no. The only elements surrounding that embassy are police and military, and they have no such apparatus."