The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed that it is “concerned about the conditions of confinement and the state of health” of its citizens, Jeannine Horvilleur Cuadra, 63, and her daughter Ana Álvarez Horvilleur, 43, who on January 18 were sentenced by Nicaraguan justice to eight years in prison for the alleged commission of the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the Nation and spreading false news.”
Horvilleur Cuadra and Álvarez Horvilleur are mother and daughter and were detained by the Nicaraguan Police on September 13, 2022, when a group of officers were looking for their husband and father, respectively, the Nicaraguan Javier Alvarez Zamora, who managed to leave the country to request international protection. Since then, the French Foreign Ministry “follows the situation closely.”
Along with the two French-Nicaraguans, Félix Roiz Sotomayor, a Nicaraguan national, who is the husband of Ana Álvarez Horvilleur, was sentenced. The regime’s justice sentenced him to ten years in prison for the same crimes, of which the State of Nicaragua and Nicaraguan society appear as “victims or offended.”
After learning of the sentences imposed by the justice system of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the French Foreign Ministry revealed that “despite numerous requests to the Nicaraguan authorities, consular access to the trial was not granted,” which was held behind closed doors. in Managua on January 17 and 18, 2023.
He pointed out that his regional Embassy could not verify the conditions of detention and the state of health of his compatriots, despite having requested it in accordance with the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular relations.
“We recall that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of April 24, 1963 establishes that ‘consular officials have the right to visit a national who is in prison, in preventive detention or in any other form of prison, to talk and correspond with him,” said the Chancellery.
The trial against the three relatives of Álvarez was carried out four months after they were imprisoned in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as El Chipote. The sentence will be confirmed on January 26 next.
Despite the lack of response from the Nicaraguan regime, the French Foreign Ministry pointed out that they will continue “seeking a solution for our two compatriots imprisoned in Managua.”
