Human rights defenders warned that the life of the political prisoner Dora Maria Tellez is in danger in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, “El Nuevo Chipote”, described as a torture prison.
The 66-year-old former Sandinista guerrilla has not been seen since Daniel Ortega’s regime exhibited her on August 31 along with other imprisoned union leaders.
«On that occasion we were able to verify his physical deterioration, the mark of torture on his visibly pale, weak and thin body. How can a person in that state and at that age continue to resist?”, questioned the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), through a publication on social networks, this Saturday, September 17.
The agency denounced that “there is total silence and secrecy about his situation. (And) we are terrified to think about how this deterioration has progressed and the fatal and irreparable consequences that it may cause.
Faced with the imminent risk, the Cenidh reiterated its demand for a change in the prison system for the former guerrilla commander because “she cannot continue in El Chipote”; as well as immediate freedom for all political prisoners.
“We hold the regime and especially the Supreme Court of Justice and the Directorate of Judicial Assistance responsible for what may happen to it,” the defenders sentenced.
“Comandante Dos” has been in prison since June 13, 2021, after police officers even monitored her home with drones, which they subsequently raided. That day, she was arbitrarily detained after beating her, according to the complaints of her relatives.
Since that date, it has only received ten visits from which a spoken portrait was built, in July, because the dictatorship had not publicly presented the political prisoners detained in the 2021 electoral context.
After continuous complaints from the relatives of the political prisoners, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo authorized the presentation of the inmates of El Chipote. On Wednesday, August 31, political prisoners Suyen Barahona and Dora María Téllez were brought to courtboth leaders of the political organization Unión Democrática Renovadora (Unamos), formerly the Sandinista Renovating Movement (MRS).
The also historian and key figure of Sandinismo who contributed to the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship is one of the elderly political prisoners to whom the Ortega Murillo deny the benefit of house arrest; despite the fact that, from their homes, political prisoners continue to be subjected to isolation and lack of adequate medical care, according to complaints.
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Téllez was sentenced to eight years in prison for the alleged crime of conspiracy to undermine national integrity through an anomalous trial behind closed doors.