Nicaraguan lawyers commemorate their day this September 29 by denouncing the situation of six jurists who are imprisoned by the Daniel Ortega regime, subjected to “cruel and inhuman treatment.” They demand freedom and respect for their human rights.
“Right now we legal professionals are being suspended, illegally detained for defending rights, exiled, exiled, threatened and lacking job opportunities. In Nicaragua we are more than 30 thousand lawyers. Today I raise my voice for the colleagues who cannot do it now, “says the lawyer and defender, Yonarqui Martínez.
Related news: Thin and pale, this is how the Ortega regime shows defender María Oviedo
The imprisoned lawyers are Róger Reyes, María Oviedo, Ana Margarita Vijil and José Pallais, imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance in Managua known as “El Nuevo Chipote”, Manuel Urbina Lara and Hader González are in the La Modelo National Penitentiary System.
Through a video, the lawyers Asdrid Montealegre, Danny Ramírez, Wendy Flores Acevedo and Martha Patricia Molina, demanded that their colleagues be released.
They remember that their work must be respected, “because it is not a law that should recognize our right, but how the State respects our exercise.”
All the detained lawyers are subjected to torture, constant interrogations, poor nutrition and inhuman treatment, according to complaints from their relatives. In the case of Dr. María Oviedo, she looks thinner, with dark circles under her eyes and a lighter skin color. Her relatives have repeatedly denounced that the lawyer has lost a lot of weight due to poor nutrition in prison.
Related news: Political prisoner Róger Reyes reflects evident weight loss due to his captivity
The defender of political prisoners was kidnapped on the night of July 29, 2021 at her mother’s house in the municipality of León. The lawyer Baltasar Arévalo, partner of the detainee, at that moment pointed out to Article 66 that several officers appeared accompanied by the chief of the Police of the Leonese city, the sanctioned commissioner Fidel Domínguez and she was detained without giving any explanation.
Róger Reyes is another of the defenders who is going through a difficult situation, as reported by his relatives. Currently, he has been on a hunger strike to be allowed to see his three- and five-year-old daughters whom he has not seen for over a year when he was arrested on the eve of the presidential elections in November 2021.
The political prisoner presents serious problems of thinness and malnutrition due to the drastic reduction in the portions of food that they are given in prison. Like most of his hostages, the dictatorship accused him of violating Law 1055, the Sovereignty Law, a legal tool approved by the deputies of the dictatorship to persecute, imprison and prosecute opponents of the regime.
