The Ortega Murillo regime released this Saturday, July 2, images of the political prisoner Félix Maradiaga, during a judicial hearing in which an appeal against his judicial sentence was rejected, one day after the desperate call of his wife Berta Valle to be allowed to verify his situation after 389 days in jail and isolation.
Maradiaga, who was seen emaciated in the photographs and videos, was the only one of six political prisoners, presented this weekend in the courts of Managua, to hear the ratification of their sentences, adopted by the Court of Appeals of Managua, another of the repressive links of the dictatorship.
The sentence was signed from last May 26 by the magistrates of Criminal Chamber 1, presided over by Octavio Rothschuh, who accepts at minute 5:13 of the video released by the official media that the Appeals sentence was already “notified ”.
“If it has already been notified, then why this hearing? This makes no sense other than a show against Maradiaga, who doesn’t even appear in the video with his defense attorney. It is one more example of the viciousness of the system, ”explained a lawyer, on condition of anonymity.
The propaganda media of the dictatorship took advantage of the session to accuse Maradiaga of “lying to Nicaragua”, while in their headlines they described him as a “delinquent”.
“I don’t know what lie you mean. We are in total isolation. The penal system we are in does not allow any news from abroad. I have always spoken the truth, this is a political trial,” the former presidential candidate defended himself.
Maradiaga’s 13-year sentence was for the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
According to the Appeals resolution, former presidential candidates Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, as well as business leader José Adán Aguerri and former deputy José Pallais, were confirmed for 13 years; nine years to former candidate Arturo Cruz; and eight years to opposition leaders Tamara Dávila and Violeta Granera.
Berta Valle asks to open El Chipote to organizations
Maradiaga’s wife, Berta Valle, demanded on social networks that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the International Red Cross and the Group of Independent Experts of the United Nations (UN) be allowed to verify the health condition of her husband and of the other political prisoners subjected to isolation by the Police.
Valle’s request received the support of five organizations of relatives of political prisoners that issued a statement: the Association of Relatives, the Committee for Liberation, the relatives of political prisoners in Chipote since May 2021, the United Political Kidnapped Group and Victims of April.
“It is urgent to verify the state of health of political prisoners in the different prisons of all the country’s prison systems, in the face of complaints of ill-treatment,” says the statement of the organizations.
Maradiaga’s trial has been characterized by irregularities since his arbitrary detention last year in the context of the presidential elections, in which Ortega locked up his main competitors and spread terror among citizens to guarantee his re-election.
The repressive escalation meant jail for at least 60 leaders, from the political, economic and social sectors. During the days of confinement of these victims, their relatives have denounced that they are subjected to interrogations, sleep deprivation and isolation, while the regime prevents their defense attorneys from having access to the files so that they can carry out their defense.
The regime must open the Chipote prisons to the relatives of political prisoners, to the IACHR-OAS, and to the UN Group of Independent Experts. Only they, and not the photos of their torturers, can verify the health condition of the inmates in isolation. Freedom Now.
– Berta Valle (@bertavalle) July 2, 2022
Last Friday, Valle said that her husband has lost 60 pounds, while she released a spoken portrait that illustrates the physical deterioration of the opposition politician. Her urgent call aroused the solidarity of the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro.
Our solidarity with Félix Maradiaga -on a hunger strike since June 21- and all the political prisoners in #Nicaragua, who are subjected to inhuman treatment and daily torture. Daniel Ortega’s regime is responsible for the life of Maradiaga and all the political prisoners. https://t.co/Rse6pS8qZv
— Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) July 1, 2022
Valle said this Saturday that “he wants to reiterate (the demand) that they show me my husband and I want a guarantee that he is fine, something that at this level of torture and incommunicado detention he and the 190 political prisoners have In Nicaragua”.
Maradiaga would have started a hunger strike for twelve days to precisely demand the end of solitary confinement and incommunicado detention to which prisoners of conscience are subjected under the Ortega dictatorship.
The president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, also considered at that time that the hunger strike is a “legitimate defense mechanism” against the cruelty that political prisoners in Nicaragua are suffering.
