The family of an opponent of the government of Daniel Ortega was sentenced this Thursday by the Justice, which imposed sentences of between eight and 10 years in prison in an act considered “unprecedented” by human rights organizations that fear the action will be replicated.
Jeannine Horvilleur, 63, and her daughter Ana Carolina Álvarez Horvilleur, 43, both women of French-Nicaraguan nationality, were sentenced to eight years in prison for “conspiracy to undermine the national structure” and “spreading news false through information and communication technologies”.
Félix Roiz, Carolina Álvarez’s husband, was also sentenced, and received a 10-year prison sentence.
The three were arrested on September 13 in Managua, after the National Police searched for opposition member Javier Álvarez, who had fled to Costa Rica after finding out he was persecuted by the government.
Since the opponent was not found, the authorities detained the three relatives, indicated the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective, which ruled after the sentence handed down by Judge Féliz Salmerón and considered that it was “unconstitutional, unfair and infamous”.
He added that the action “is part of the state of terror carried out by the Ortega Murillo regime, which prescribes jail or exile like the one suffered by Javier Álvarez, husband and father of the political prisoners.”
Paris asks Nicaragua to account
According to the newspaper The nation of Costa Rica, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it was closely monitoring the situation of its two citizens and that they contacted the Nicaraguan authorities.
“The embassy is fully mobilized, together with the consular office in Costa Rica,” the publication indicates.
In Nicaragua there are more than 200 political prisoners arrested since 2021, the year in which Ortega prevailed for a new term for a period of five years.
The president, who returned to power in 2007, has plunged the country into a political crisis and human rights violations, according to organizations critical of his administration.
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