The sentences of four former presidential hopefuls and two former deputy foreign ministers, among others, were confirmed
Archive photo of a demonstration by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (EFE/Jorge Torres)
The Nicaraguan Judiciary ratified the guilty verdicts and sentences of between 8 and 13 years in prison< /b> against a group of 13 opponents and critics of President Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) reported this Friday.
“In the Courts of Appeals, the appeals have been declared inadmissible, confirming the unjust convictions,” reported the Cenidh, which described the decision of the Nicaraguan Justice as “farce and judicial persecution.”
< p class=”paragraph”>The so-called political prisoners had been found guilty for crimes considered “treason against the fatherland” and other economic crimes, at the beginning of this year, in trials that the Cenidh and similar organizations described as “void”, because they were held outside the law, behind closed doors inside a prison, without following due process and without the accused having access to their defenses or evidence.< /b>
“When the appeals are rejected, it is imposed that the lawyers, within a term of ten days, have to file the appeal, where the Supreme Court of Justice will close the cycle of repression and limitless complicity that exists between the Ortega Murillo regime and the Judiciary”, said the Cenidh.
The convicts whose sentences were confirmed are the former candidates for the Presidency Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Miguel Mora, the former vice chancellors José Pallais and Víctor Hugo Tinoco, opposition leaders Ana Margarita Vijil, Tamara Dávila and Violeta Granera , the peasant leaders Medardo Mairena and Pedro Mena, the businessman José Adán Aguerri and the sports journalist Miguel Mendoza.
File photo of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (EFE/Jorge Torres)
The 13 were captured in 2021, in the midst of a wave of arrests against opponents, critics of the Daniel Ortega regime, and independent professionals, prior to the November 7 elections, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second together with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison.
The Cenidh blamed Ortega and Murillo for taking the decisions of the Judiciary from his mansion, located in the residential area of El Carmen, in the west of Managua. “There is no doubt that the Judiciary is a shame, they have become ‘machotoros’ obedient to the dictates of El Carmen. They do not analyze, they do not study the remedies that are filed, they only know how to confirm spurious sentences”, highlighted the Cenidh.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ( IACHR), more than 180 people remain in Nicaraguan prisons as “political prisoners”.
The deprivation of liberty for political reasons, pointed out by humanitarian organizations, was accentuated in 2018, when Nicaraguans came out en masse to protest against Ortega, and were reduced with armed attacks. The IACHR asserts that at least 355 people died in these protests. Ortega, who maintains that it was a “failed coup,” has admitted on different occasions the death of 200 Nicaraguans.
(With information from EFE)