Nicaraguan opposition leader Yubrank Suazo was sentenced this Wednesday to 10 years in prison, after being found guilty of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “false news,” a decision rejected by various human rights organizations.
“Judge Ulisa Tapia Silva, judge of the Thirteenth Criminal Trial District, sentenced Yubrank Suazo to 10 years in prison for the crime of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and for false news, plus an 800-day fine, which is equivalent to 56,456 córdobas (1,570 dollars),” reported the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, which considers him innocent and calls him a “political prisoner.”
Suazo became known during the massive protests against President Daniel Ortega in 2018, when he read the proclamation that declared the city of Masaya (Pacific) “territory free from the dictator,” referring to the Sandinista leader, who has governed Nicaragua since 2007.
The opposition leader was sentenced despite the fact that “he is a beneficiary of precautionary measures granted by the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)),” said Cenidh.
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“This is the second time that he has been imprisoned while being innocent, the first time occurred in 2018, and both processes have been riddled with irregularities and violations of his human rights,” denounced the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective.
According to the Collective, the trial against Suazo was held in the National Police prison known as “El Chipote”, which has been denounced as a “torture center” by human rights defenders.
The Collective added that “Yubrank is being held in solitary confinement in a punishment prison in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System.”
crisis context
Suazo’s case is one of more than 190 Nicaraguans who, according to the IACHR, remain imprisoned as “political prisoners” in their country, including human rights defenders, feminists, journalists, peasant leaders, businessmen, academics, students, and others.
The imprisonments take place in the context of the sociopolitical crisis that erupted in 2018, when massive protests against Ortega shook the Sandinista government.
Ortega managed to quell the demonstrations against him with armed attacks that, according to the IACHR, left at least 355 dead in 2018, of which the president has admitted 200.
That same year thousands of protesters were imprisoned for short periods. But others, like Suazo, spent a year or more in prison before being benefited from a controversial Amnesty Law, which did not please the opponents benefited, who consider themselves innocent, while demanding justice for the fatal victims.
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The crisis has driven more than 200,000 Nicaraguans into exile, including the poet Gioconda Belli, as well as activists, doctors, journalists, students and peasants.
The situation in Nicaragua worsened in the elections last November, when Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, were re-elected once again in their positions, with their rivals in jail or in exile.
The opponents who are in prison have been repeatedly described as “sons of bitches” of the United States by Ortega, who considers that the 2018 protests were actually a “failed coup.”
In that group is Suazo, a member of the Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy who twice negotiated a way out of the crisis with the Ortega government, without success.
