The lawyer María Oviedo, human rights defender of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), accumulates this Thursday, December 1, 490 days of being captive in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as “El Chipote”.
In that center, she is subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as denounced by her husband, to human rights organizations and to the institution where she worked until she was arrested.
The lawyer and defender of political prisoners He faced a trial for the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and propagation of false news.
Related news: CPDH denounces the “physical and psychological torture” to which lawyer María Oviedo is subjected
On February 14, 2022, Ulisa Yahosca Tapia Silva, judge of the Thirteenth Criminal Trial District in Managua, recently sanctioned by the United States, found her guilty. María Oviedo was sentenced to eight years in prison on February 23 of this year.
The Ortega dictatorship exhibited the political prisoner on September 1st after more than a year in detention. María Oviedo 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.
The evidence presented by the Public Ministry against the defender includes statements she offered to the independent court program Esta Semana, and testimonies from National Police officers who participated in the “investigative process.”
The lawyer and human rights defender worked as coordinator of the legal area of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH). María Oviedo, 39, is one of the more than 40 Nicaraguans that Ortega-Murillo sent to jail for being against his regime and for fighting for human rights.
Oviedo was kidnapped on the night of July 29 at her mother’s house in the municipality of León. The lawyer Baltasar Arévalo, a partner of the detainee, at that moment pointed out to Article 66 that several officers appeared accompanied by the police chief of the city of Leon, the sanctioned commissioner Fidel Domínguez, and she was detained without giving any explanation.
