The report presented on Monday by the Torture Observatory reveals that at least 66 people were arrested and convicted in the context of the last presidential elections
Daniel Ortega
A report by the Observatory for Torture presented on Monday concluded that in Nicaragua, justice is used as an instrument of a “policy of repression”, against opponents.
According to the report, entitled Analysis of judicial processes. December 2021 – March 2022,At least 66 people were arrested and sentenced in the context of the elections in which Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, were re-elected as president and vice president, respectively.
According to the study, the Ortega and Murillo regime uses the “Executive Power as an organ of repression and criminalization of opponents, activists, journalists and human rights defenders.”
< p class=”paragraph”>The Observatory, which belongs to the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective, pointed out that, After the announcement of his re-election, there was an “increase in stigmatization and hostility towards political prisoners, especially after the presidential speech in which he called them ‘sons of bitches’, so it can be considered an increase in the fury towards the more than 181 political prisoners at that time.”
The report highlighted the “lack of autonomy and independence of the Public Ministry”, and described the“Executive Power as an organ of repression and criminalization of opponents, activists, journalists and human rights defenders (…). The trials against these political prisoners solidify totalitarianism and the submission of this Power to the presidential couple.”
Political prisoners in Nicaragua
“To guarantee this model, the judges have been selected for their obedience to the government party (…), the arrested persons are not subjects of rights, they are treated as enemies,” added the lawyer for the Collective. , Gonzalo Carrión.
The Observatory made reference to violations of due process against political prisoners,among which he highlighted arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment or torture, ignorance of the accusation, null publicity of the judicial processes, limited right to defense, deprivation of the use of the word, forced to incriminate themselves after threats and torture.”
< p class=”paragraph”>“The way in which these judicial processes have been configured constitute tools to generate cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as to allow torture”, he added.
This Monday was the sixth report by the Human Rights Collective on the judicial processes in Nicaragua, in the context of the socio-political crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2018.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at least 355 people died in the armed attacks against the 2018 anti-government demonstrations, while at least 181 remain in prison, including seven Nicaraguans arrested after announcing their i interest in competing with Ortega for the Presidency of Nicaragua.
(With information from EFE)