Judge María José Zapata Morales, of the Second Local Criminal Court of Granada, ordered preventive detention against Martha Candelaria Hernandez on June 21, four days after she retracted her accusation against the priest Manuel Rodríguez García, pastor of the Jesús Nazareno Church in Nandaime.
Hernández was accused of “false testimony” by the Public Ministry, represented at the preliminary hearing by Annye Soogey Rodríguez. According to local legislation, the defendant could face jail with a sentence ranging between three and five years.
According to the information of the accusation, registered in the judicial system under the number 0016-ORR1-2022-PN, Judge Zapata ordered that the preventive detention be carried out in the penitentiary centers of the country, without determining a specific place.
The judge clarified, however, that the same measure should be carried out “in places absolutely separate from those occupied by those who have been sentenced. The accused will be treated as innocent at all times, taking into account that he is detained for the sole purpose of ensuring his appearance in the process, ”she clarified.
Rodriguez Garcia He is the only religious imprisoned in the midst of the persecution of the Ortega Regime against the Catholic Church. He has been detained since June 2, when he was the target of a defamation campaign in the official media.
Prison to “not hinder the truth”
According to the record of the preliminary hearing in the Hernández case, the Prosecutor’s Office requested preventive detention, arguing that it is a punishable act and with the aim of avoiding “obstruction of the truth.”
The defendant was appointed a public defender, Martha Mercado, as she did not have the resources to hire a lawyer.
Hernández appeared in the official media, accusing the priest of aggression and affirming that he had an “intimate friendship” with him, while the regime’s propaganda described him as violent and drunk.
The defendant changed her version before the courts of Granada and said that it was an accident and also denied that she was a religious partner.
Judge Zapata summoned for a new hearing on June 27 at ten in the morning, in room number six of the Granada court. The persecution of the Catholic Church has been the subject of a recent study by the lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who estimated 190 occurred in the last four years.
At the end of May, the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando José Álvarez, began a fasting to demand an end to police persecutionand also the priest Harvin Padilla, who denounced that he had the “parish for jail” in the city of Masaya, victim of the oppression of the dictatorship.
