The Nicaraguan Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASONIDEFEHU-ANPDH) through a statement expressed its “repudiation” regarding the accusations, sentence and conditions in which the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, finds himself.
The pronouncement highlights that “probably what Ortega could not bear was Álvarez’s disobedience, by refusing to be part of the group of exiles. The daring rebellion of the religious determined that the dictatorship instantly transferred him from house to prison to prison in a penitentiary establishment, to then, surprisingly quickly, prosecute him and sentence him to 26 years in prison,” denounces the organization. .
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After six months of house arrest, on February 9, the cardinal refused to be banished from Nicaragua and in revenge the regime decided to lock him up in the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System (SPN), known as “La Modelo”, as confirmed by the Daniel Ortega himself in a signal broadcast on radio and television nationwide.
«The Ortega Murillo dictatorship tries to counteract the moral stature of Bishop Álvarez Lagos. This was confirmed last Friday, when Ortega, on a national radio and television channel, tried to ridicule the image and actions of Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, for refusing to board the flight that would take to Washington the 222 political prisoners that the dictatorship exiled to the United States, after having stripped them of their Nicaraguan nationality for considering them “traitors to the homeland”, “says the ANPDH.
The statement ends by requesting “vehemently to the international community and to the organizations that watch over human rights in the world, demand from the dictatorship the immediate freedom of Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, unconditionally, with absolute respect for his human rights and citizens, including the inviolable right to their Nicaraguan nationality.”
On February 10, Bishop Álvarez was found guilty in an express summary trial in which the sentence of 26 years in prison was also handed down. The day before, on February 9, the Catholic hierarch refused to be banished from Nicaragua and in revenge the regime ordered him to be locked up in the National Penitentiary System (SPN), known as “La Modelo”.
The bishop was also stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality. In addition, the court ordered the payment of 56,461.15 córdobas corresponding to 800 days of fine. The Monsignor was scheduled to face trial on February 15, however he was brought forward after the hierarch refused to board a plane with 222 other prisoners to be exiled.
The Catholic hierarch was violently arrested on August 19, 2021 in the Matagalpa Episcopal Curia, from that date until February 9, 2023 he remained under house arrest.
