The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) condemned this Friday the “dehumanizing exhibition” of Nicaragua’s political prisoners, among whom are three journalists, and asked the Government of the Central American country for their release.
According to a statement from the organization, which is based in Miami, Florida (USA), “the regime of Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo” exhibited several political prisoners this week, “many of them with a clear deterioration loss of health and considerable weight loss, as a result of the dietary restrictions in prison.”
In the statement, the IAPA affirms that the images of Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of the newspaper La Prensa and regional vice president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information of the hemispheric organization, caused concern.
Holmann is sentenced to 9 years in prison, suffers from hypertension, has vision problems and underwent heart surgery, details the IAPA.
He adds that the journalists Miguel Mora, founder and director of the 100% Noticias channel, sentenced to 13 years, and Miguel Mendoza, sports writer, jailed for 9 years, were also exhibited as a “hunting trophy”.
It was a “humiliating display by the prisoners, with the perverse intention of denigrating the incarcerated and intimidating their relatives and opponents and critics of the regime,” denounced Jorge Canahuati and Carlos Jornet, president of the IAPA and the Freedom of Information Commission. Press and Information of the organization, respectively.
Both reiterated the request for the release of prisoners of conscience “or that, at least, the regime has mercy and allows them to continue their trials and sentences under house arrest.”
The IAPA defines itself as a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere.
