The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega uses the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “propagation of false news” to fabricate cases against political prisoners in Nicaragua, in charge of an “instrumentalized” judicial system, which lawyers and defenders of human rights qualify as a “repressive arm” of the Ortega political apparatus.
In collusion with the Judiciary, the regime has sentenced 45 political prisoners for “conspiracy”, with sentences of seven to thirteen years in prison, including the seven presidential candidates captured in the 2021 escalation of repression. In addition, fourteen of those 45 Political prisoners have also been tried and convicted for alleged “spreading of false news,” and it occurred without clear evidence proving criminal responsibility, according to defense attorneys.
The factory of crimes is repeated against another twenty prisoners of conscience, arrested in 2022, which includes relatives of politically persecuted, workers of the confiscated newspaper La Prensa, and six religious and one layman who were kidnapped for 15 days with Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who has spent more than two months under “house arrest.” In less than fifteen days, the Ortega Prosecutor’s Office charged 24 Nicaraguans – twenty political prisoners and four with arrest warrants – for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and nine of them also for alleged “spreading false news.”
The lawyer and former administrator of justice in exile, Yader Morazán, analyzed the accusations against these latest political prisoners and assures that none of them meets the requirement of exposing the implication of the accused in the commission of the alleged crimes.
Morazán explained that the crime of “undermining” only applies to people who hold power, and it is not the case of any of the twenty who are ordinary citizens detained in some cases as hostages to threaten persecuted politicians who are in exile.
In addition, he indicated that the Special Cybercrime Law, approved in October 2020 as part of a package of repressive laws against the population, does not define what is fake news either. Article 30 of the also known as the “Gag Law” indicates that “Whoever, using Information and Communication Technologies, publishes or spreads false and/or distorted information, which causes alarm, fear, anxiety in the population, or a group or sector of it, a person or their family, will be imposed the sentence of two to four years in prison and three hundred to five hundred days fine”. But there is no way to legally measure what is or is not fake news. Y “How is that anxiety measured socially speaking?”, questions Morazán.
“Since 2018 there is a common pattern, all the accusations have the same format. They are manufactured in series. Participations are not individualized, facts that are imputable or constitute a crime are not specified, but they say “they conspired to undermine the territorial identity, but it does not say in what way they did it, how, when, where, what was the extraction they did”, underlines.
“We don’t need to prove that’s false”
Part of the 20 political prisoners of 2022 who are being processed were captured in a repressive wave that the regime unleashed, between September 4 and 18, against members of the Renovating Democratic Union (Unite, before MRS). In several cases, the Police detained them when they did not find the opponent they were looking for, according to what they denounced to CONFIDENTIAL the politically persecuted Javier Alvarez Zamora Y Andrea Margarita del Carmen.
These new actions have been considered by human rights organizations as a new “repressive pattern” by the regime.
A defense attorney, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, believes that the government is sending messages in two ways: the first, directed at their bases, to reinforce the theory that these people spread false information and conspire against the Government; the second, for the entire population, threatening anyone who dares to say what he thinks with jail.
“(The message is) we accuse you that this is false because we do not need to prove that it is false, I simply need to accuse you and the judicial apparatus is going to find you guilty,” warned the lawyer who has followed up on the political trials.
The lawyer also explained that the regime has used different crimes to imprison political prisoners since the outbreak of the April Rebellion in 2018. In that year, hundreds of prisoners of conscience were accused of terrorism; in 2019 they opted for common crimes and drug trafficking prevailed and, as of 2021, they have applied the repressive laws approved in 2020, prevailing the crime of “conspiracy to undermine” and propagation of “false news”.
In the political trials carried out inside El Chipote, between February and March, the Prosecutor’s Office did not present a single piece of evidence to show what was false news, the lawyer stressed. “What the government is interested in is trying to say that all the news that is not about them is false, it is lies, and that is why they are putting these people in jail,” he assured.
Another lawyer, who has participated in the defense of political prisoners and also requested anonymity, maintained that the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary are only following the same roadmap as in the previous cases: the Police already know what mention in the reports, the prosecutors maintain the same accusation and the judges already know how to rule in hearings and trials, he said.
“That previous experience has simply told them that this is the easiest way to fabricate or disguise a case against these citizens,” he denounced.
The lawyers also agree that in recent political trials there are more constitutional, procedural and human rights violations than those held in 2018. At that time the Prosecutor’s Office was trying to put together a story, but “today they simply accuse you,” they agree.
“It doesn’t matter what evidence you bring, you are guilty because the judicial apparatus does that,” said the first defense attorney quoted on condition of anonymity.
Generic accusations against priests
“There is no legal explanation” says the other lawyer to clarify why priests, civilians and media workers are being tried for the same crimes.
The evidence is in the preliminary hearing against the priests Ramiro Tijerino Chávez, General Rector of the Juan Pablo II University; José Luis Díaz Cruz, vicar of the Cathedral of Matagalpa and that of his predecessor Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano, deacon Raúl Antonio Vega, seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza and Melkin Centeno, and photojournalist Sergio Cadena Flores.
The public defender imposed on Father Tijerino, María Verónica Nieto Guillén, pointed out that in the accusation presented by the Prosecutor’s Office they indicate that the priest carried out “a series of situations before the media, he talks about social networks”, but without details. They also allege that he used radio stations and the pulpit of the churches, but they do not indicate which are the radios and to which temples they refer. At the same time, they point out that the priest was “carrying out unspecified plans” inside the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, where he remained surrounded by riot police.
For her part, the defender of Father Sadiel and the photojournalist, Sergio, Ethelvina Guisselle Sobalvarro Cruz, questioned that according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the latter, since August 2019, had made recordings outside the Church of Matagalpa and they were broadcast through Channel 12 and Radio Catholic, but they do not explain how they were sent to said media outlets, and much less, what link this point has with the alleged crime of impairment. Regarding Father Sadiel, the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that in February of this year he made “a communication with retaliation”, but there is no more information about the fact.
“As there is no control and what exists is the application of political guidelines is that, precisely, -criticizes one of the lawyers- all cases pass with any absurd accusation and come to have absurd results of convictions”.
