The Daniel Ortega regime maintains “kidnapped” the judicial files of eight religious imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), El Chipote, while it maintains the political trials against them and the persecution against the Catholic Church, which even reaches the prohibition of religious festivities.
The defense of the priests have not had access to the files, despite the fact that the machinery of Ortega judges sent the cases to trial since October 2022. Judge Gloria María Saavedra Corrales, of the Tenth District Criminal Court of Hearings of Managua, sent the father to trial Oscar Danilo Benavides Davila, according to the minutes of the initial hearing held on Thursday, October 6.
The priests Ramiro Tijerino Chávez, José Luis Díaz Cruz, Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano, the deacon Raúl Antonio Vega and the seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza and Melkin Centeno, imprisoned on August 19, after the police assault on the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, where they remained kidnapped together with the bishop and political prisoner, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez -currently at home in prison-, were sent on trial since October. Likewise, the priest Enrique Martinez Gamboa, The last priest kidnapped, violently by the regime, on October 13, was also referred to a judge.
Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Estelí Diocese, was also sent to a trial without a specific date on January 10, 2023. The eight religious and Álvarez are accused of the same crimes of alleged “conspiracy to undermine the national integrity” and “propagation of false news”. Crimes that the regime has instrumentalized to imprison opponents, according to legal experts.
Imprisoned and accused without hearing evidence of alleged crimes
The defense lawyers are waiting for the scheduling of the trials, but “they have not given anyone access to the files,” said one of the sources consulted under anonymity to preserve their safety.
He added that the defenses have only had access to the exchange of information and evidence through the initial hearing and, although they have submitted documents requesting access to court documents still no response. The documents that should be public and delivered to them are mainly the details of the accusation, the hearing minutes, the exchange of information and evidence, and the corresponding sentences.
The accusation “is essential”, maintains a lawyer and adds: “if you do not have the accusation you are defenseless, they are judging you for something that you do not know what you did”, explained the source.
Repressive judicial pattern against imprisoned religious
This is not the first time that the Judiciary has limited the role of the defense attorney in cases involving political prisoners. During the legal processes of around thirty social, political, student and other sector leaders, captured in the 2021 electoral context and sentenced at the beginning of 2022, the lawyers denounced a series of violations of their exercise and the right to due defense of the prisoners of conscience.
After months of presenting judicial briefs, the lawyers partially obtained the files of their defendants. The act violates article 124 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPP), which establishes that the parties —the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense— may obtain simple copies of the judicial proceedings without any formality.
Defenders have not been able to speak with the imprisoned religious
Likewise, the lawyers have not been able to speak with the priests they defend, even though it is their right. In an analysis conducted by CONFIDENTIAL criminal lawyers pointed out that since 2022 a repressive pattern prevails, which makes recent political trials “much more aggressive and much more violative than those of 2018 and 2019”when the Ortega regime tried dozens of Nicaraguans for getting involved in civic protests.
According to judicial experts, the cases fabricated by the Prosecutor’s Office against prisoners of conscience between 2018 and 2019 tried to simulate a bit of legality; However, the current ones do not have any legal basis. Priests, opponents, and journalists are tried for the same crimes, revealing the submission of the Judiciary to the political interests of the Ortega regime.
“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 attributable or constituting a crime are not specified, but rather they say “they conspired to undermine the territorial identity, but it does not say how they did it, how, when where, what was the extraction they did” stressed the lawyer Yader Morazán in a recent publication.
The kidnappings of religious began in August 2022, in a new repressive chapter of the Ortega regime against the Catholic Church. This wave of persecution was characterized by the intimidation of dozens of priests, causing the exile of more than half a dozen; the prohibition of processions; the police siege of churches in different parts of the country and the warning to priests to moderate the message shared with the parishioners through their homilies. A total of eleven parents were turned into prisoners of conscience: two are sentenced, eight in El Chipote and one at home in prison.
Daniel Ortega maintains more than 230 prisoners of conscience in different prisons in the countryand this Monday, January 9, in his first speech of the year, he assured that he will not release them, despite the constant demands for freedom from their relatives and the international community.
