The sentences of between 8 and 13 years in prison against 7 opposition leaders who wanted to compete for the Presidency with the ruling Daniel Ortega in the elections last November in Nicaragua show an alternative “policy against all leadership”, the Urnas Abiertas observatory said on Tuesday. .
“The declaration of guilt against the seven rivals who tried to confront Ortega and (Rosario) Murillo is the consummation of the political persecution and prosecution against any leadership or opposition force that aspired to dispute power through the vote,” said Urnas Abiertas, an independent body, in a statement.
The seven politicians who announced their intentions to be candidates for the opposition Presidency and who were sentenced are Arturo Cruz (9 years old), Cristina Chamorro Barrios (8 years old), Félix Maradiaga (13 years old), Juan Sebastián Chamorro (13 years old) , Medardo Mairena (13 years old), Miguel Mora (13 years old) and Noel Vidaurre (9 years old).
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The Nicaraguan opponents were found guilty of crimes that are considered treason or money laundering, despite the fact that, according to humanitarian organizations, they did not commit them.
Some of them will additionally have to pay million-dollar fines, while others will not be able to hold elected positions even after having served their sentence.
“These are null sentences, they are innocent, we demand immediate freedom,” considered, for its part, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), which accompanied the cases.
The last to be sentenced was Chamorro Barrios, daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who surprisingly defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections.
THE TRIALS ARE NULL
“We demand the cessation of these convictions and null trials that occur because the country is facing a dictatorship that violates the human rights of the population that thinks differently,” highlighted the NGO Human Rights Collective Nicaragua Never Again, based in Costa Rica, in a declaration.
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Open Ballot Boxes detected at least seven irregularities in the trials against the former candidates for the Nicaraguan Presidency for the opposition, among which he highlighted the “arbitrary arrests without timely judicial control,” and “raids without a court order and without delivering an occupation certificate.” of goods”.
Also the “prolongation of preventive detention for more than 90 days”, in some cases up to nine months, “trials with legal causes and evidence without solid foundations”, “violation of the presumption of innocence” or “non-compliance and rejection of appeals for personal display”.
Likewise, it underlined the “prohibition of the detained persons from communicating with their lawyers before or during the trial”, “violation of the publicity of hearings”, and the “right to be tried by impartial judges”.
The arrest of opponents prior to the November 7 elections influenced 81.5% of voters to refrain from going to the polls on election day, according to Open Ballot Boxes, data not admitted by the Nicaraguan authorities.
In these elections, the Sandinista leader was re-elected for his fifth term, fourth consecutive and second together with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, before the rejection of the bulk of the international community, including the Organization of American States (OAS).
According to Open Ballot Boxes, 81.5% of Nicaraguans abstained from voting.
The Nicaraguan president has branded the imprisoned and tried opponents as “traitors to the country”, “criminals” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists”.
