The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States Department of State (State Department: Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor) demanded the immediate release of the former presidential candidate and current political prisoner Juan Sebastian Chamorro.
“Freedom now for Juan Sebastián Chamorro!” The Office demanded this Monday, January 23, through its Twitter account, recalling that the hostage of the Daniel Ortega regime has been imprisoned for more than 19 months.
Related news: MEP Pablo Arias sponsors Juan Sebastián Chamorro to demand his freedom
«Economist, businessman, politician and political prisoner. In June 2021, Nicaraguan Juan Sebastián Chamorro was unjustly imprisoned by the Ortega-Murillo regime, along with dozens of other activists and political figures,” the US state agency said.
Chamorro was sentenced to 13 years in prison after a trial that, according to his international lawyer Jared Genser, was riddled with irregularities. During the process, the Prosecutor’s Office presented 27 police officers as witnesses against Chamorro and six other political prisoners. The only proof that was imputed to them was their participation in a WhatsApp group and some interviews on television.
For his part, the political prisoner expressed his innocence, stating that “only God, history and my country Nicaragua can judge me. I am at peace, I have faith and hope because I know that God and Nicaraguans know that I am innocent,” he said with aplomb after hearing the guilty verdict against him.
Related news: Juan Sebastián Chamorro demands to communicate with his wife and daughter, he has not seen them for 412 days
On August 30, Juan Sebastián Chamorro was presented in the Managua Courts; In the images disseminated by the propaganda media of the dictatorship, he was shown in deteriorated physical condition due to the confinement conditions to which he is subjected, along with the other political prisoners, from the cells of “El Nuevo Chipote” .
In November of last year, the Member of the European Parliament for the Popular Party (PP) Pablo Arias joined the campaign “Breaking chains, sponsor a political prisoner”thus representing Chamorro.
The businessman is part of the list of more than 230 opponents imprisoned and convicted by the courts of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, charging them with common crimes or for alleged “treason against the homeland.”
