Two days after the conviction against priest Óscar Benavides, the first religious to be prosecuted for alleged crimes of conspiracy and false news, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega listed the 12 witnesses and four experts who will testify in the spurious trial against the bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez. Among these stand out: three policemen, two state workers and several Sandinista sympathizers.
“These witnesses and experts who are going to be brought before the court against Bishop Rolando José Álvarez and against the rest of the priests, they are false witnesses that the same regime is using to create as much damage as possible and give an appearance of legality in this judicial process”, he opined during the program Tonightthe lawyer and researcher on religious issues, Martha Patricia Molina.
The expert adds that “we know that paramilitaries are on the list of witnesses and experts, relatives of paramilitaries, state workers and police. So it is one more assembly of the judicial system, a completely null, arbitrary and illegal trial”.
For his part, the lawyer and former employee of the Judiciary, Yader Morazán, who is in exile and has followed up on the case of the religious, revealed through Twitter that one of the witnesses is Josefa Azucena Jirón López, who is secretary of the Ministry of Education (Mined) in the department of Matagalpa and Erling Francisco Picado Montoya, public defender in the Judicial Complex of Matagalpa.
He also mentioned that Elba Marina Rayo will participate, who works in a radio station with a Sandinista profile and previously collaborated with Bishop Álvarez; Emiliano Pérez Castro, who is the brother of former commissioner (dishonorably discharged) Marvin Pérez, “who after April was appointed as a delegate of the Matagalpa Ministry of Transportation.” Of the majority of witnesses there are photographs with political propaganda.
Father Erick: “It is also a crime involve people who know nothing”
The priest Erick Díaz, who went into exile in September 2022 to protect his life and freedom, pointed out on his Facebook account that “there are several there who did not know what was on that list and only realized today (…) They will already know that comes later: summon them and threaten them so that they say what they prepared”.
The religious added that “there are several who go with joy, to vent their hatred and tell lies against the monsignor. There are others who first give priority to their faith and are not capable of giving false testimonies. That is also a crime committed by the system of involving people who do not know anything and who are not willing to tell lies. They too are victims.”
And he reflects that “sooner or later everything comes to light (…) and whoever lost consciousness and is going to lie against an innocent person, in addition to being a sin is a crime punishable by law.”
For her part, lawyer Martha Patricia Molina recalls that the Penal Code establishes and stipulates that there is a penalty against false witnesses or for those “experts who give information that is going to harm in this case to the accused”.
It also recommendsbe attentive to this type of lawsuits and document who are those who are participating in the judicial system both the judges, the prosecutors who represent the Public Ministry; the public defenders, the witnesses, the experts, because all this that they are doing is going against what the criminal laws establish.”
“Coincidentally” they also initiate proceedings to organize a trial against the other priests and laity who accompanied Bishop Rolando Álvarez in the Matagalpa Episcopal Curia. pic.twitter.com/sSPzj6IxqG
— Yader Morazán ⚖️ ?? (@YaderMorazan) January 18, 2023
Priest Benavides should have been tried along with other religious
Morazán explains that in the case of the priest Óscar Benavides there is a correlation with the other imprisoned religious, therefore, the State made a “mistake” by prosecuting him independently because “there could be contradictions between one process and the other, this could generate a future procedural defect on appeal, for example,” he said.
It also explains that in this trial, as in others of a political nature, the State is judge and party. That is “the State is the one that investigates, accuses, prosecutes, condemns and at the same time the State appears as a victim. The State even imposes a public defender and he exercises a simulation of defense in favor of the priests”, he opined during the Esta Noche program.
Molina points out that in the case of Benavides, Ortega judge Nancy Aguirre Gudiel – who had imposed a public defender on him – allowed a private lawyer to assume his defense. Nevertheless, “It is known that not even (private) lawyers have had access to all the documentation where the evidence appears, the statements of which he is accused”.
The lawyer clarifies that although there is already a guilty verdict against the priest Benavides, the years of sentence have not yet been imposed. “This penalty can range from five to 15 years in prison, but Nor should we be scared if the judge later says that there are more years”, he thinks.
Matagalpa Curia still taken
On December 13, the Nicaraguan Public Ministry accused Bishop Álvarez and the exiled priest Uriel Antonio Vallejos for the alleged crimes of conspiracy and propagation of false news. The bishop was presented without his religious clothing at the initial hearing, held at the Managua Judicial Complex, on January 10.
The Nicaraguan Police, headed by Francisco Díaz, President Ortega’s in-law, accuses the priest of trying to “organize violent groups”, supposedly “with the purpose of destabilizing the State of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities.”
Morazán, who is a former official of the Nicaraguan judicial system, explains that the Episcopal Curia where the bishop was “kidnapped” between August 4 and 19, 2022, along with other priests and laity, is still being taken over by the National Police.
“Although there are no police cones in the perimeter guard, in that place you can’t even park a taxi for five minutes to save a passenger ”, denounces. And he adds: “there is no procedure that has given some kind of appearance of legality or has disguised the fact that they have carried out against the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa.”
Troubled year for the Church
Last October, Ortega attacked the Catholic Church led by Pope Francis, He accused her of not practicing democracy, of being a “dictatorship” and a “perfect tyranny” and of having used “her bishops in Nicaragua to carry out a coup” against her government in the context of the demonstrations that broke out in April. of 2018 for some controversial reforms to social security.
In 2022, the Sandinista government expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Too has imprisoned seven priests and two collaborators from the diocese of Matagalpaclosed nine Catholic radio stations and removed from subscription television programming three Catholic channels, and prevented processions and pilgrimages.
**With information from EFE**
