The prison sentence of the general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, shows that the Nicaraguan authorities “opted a hard line instead of a negotiated solution to the crisis that began in 2018,” said the high commissioner on April 1 of the UN for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
“Unfortunately, it is not the first time that we have seen legal procedures in Nicaragua that do not respect due process and the necessary standards for a fair trial,” said the high commissioner in a written response to a question from Efe.
Holmann, considered a “political prisoner” of the Government of Daniel Ortega by humanitarian organizations, was sentenced on Thursday, March 31, to nine years in prison and to pay a fine, after being found guilty of the crime of money, property or asset laundering. .
The person in charge of La Prensa, the oldest newspaper in Nicaragua, is one of the more than 40 Nicaraguans among opposition leaders, critics of President Daniel Ortega and independent professionals who were imprisoned before the elections last November, in which a good part of the opposition was vetoed.
Since his arrest in August 2021, the authorities have prevented the publication of La Prensa on paper, so since then the newspaper, founded in 1926, has only circulated in an electronic version.
Related news: Ortega Regime Sentences General Manager of La Prensa to Nine Years in Prison and a Multimillion-Dollar Fine
Since the beginning of the popular revolt in April 2018 against the Ortega government, it is estimated that some 120 journalists have fled Nicaragua.
This Thursday the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution that will establish a group of three experts to investigate possible human rights violations in Nicaragua since April 2018.
