The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in favor of political prisoner Yoel Sandino Ibarra, after considering that he is in “a serious and urgent situation of risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Nicaragua,” the agency informed through a releasethis May 9.
Yoel Ibzán Sandino Ibarra, 25, was imprisoned on November 5, 2021, in the context of the general votes in which the Daniel Ortega regime was re-elected without political competition. On February 21, 2022, the young man was sentenced to eleven years and six months in prison, plus a fine of 42,000 cordobas, for the alleged crimes of “undermining national integrity” and “propagation of false news”.
The accusation of the Ortega Prosecutor’s Office was based on publications that Sandino made from the Free Minds page, which he created in 2018 to denounce human rights violations by the State against citizens.
The IACHR pointed out that Sandino’s prison conditions are “unhealthy” and, according to information provided to the IACHR by his mother Yamileth Ibarra, “in the month of March 2022, he was still in a strict prison regime, without any benefit. like studying, working or leaving the cell” and, in addition, he has limited access to daylight hours and restrictions on the number of family visits, since in six months he only received three visits.
In the resolution 21-2022Regarding the precautionary measures for Sandino Ibarra, the Commission requested that the State of Nicaragua “adopt the necessary measures to protect the rights to life, personal integrity, and health” of the political prisoner.; ensure that their detention conditions “are compatible with international standards”; “Immediately carry out an impartial and specialized medical assessment of your current health situation” and “grant the treatments and medications that you would have prescribed.”
The State responded to the IACHR indicating that it “is unaware of, rejects, and does not accept” the alleged adoption of precautionary measures, due to the “malicious insistence of those who try – with false information – to continue their campaign to smear our Government.” He also assured that Sandino “is not in a serious and urgent state.”
Last April, Sandino Ibarra’s mother denounced the lack of specialized medical attention that puts the political prisoner’s health at risk and demanded that the authorities of the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo, allow him to attend a neurological evaluation and the performing an MRI to follow up on the congenital cyst lodged in the right side of his head.
On May 5, she also publicly demanded the change of her son’s prison regime to house arrest, recalling that the young man suffers from a congenital cyst, which may continue to deteriorate due to the conditions of confinement in which they have him.
Criminal does not authorize medical review of John Cerna
Relatives of political prisoner John Cerna, known as “El Tigrillo”, also denounced in an interview with CONFIDENTIAL the lack of specialized medical attention in La Modelo.
“He has been ill and we are concerned that he is still not receiving medical attention. Some relatives visited him last Friday (May 6) and told us that he told them that he has had allergies, that his arm has swollen because they continue to neglect the dislocation in his shoulder, and that in mid-April he had new seizures because of the epilepsy he suffers from,” denounced the relative who requested anonymity.
Cerna has been in the maximum security cells of La Modelo for eight months, but he has been imprisoned since February 2020, after participating in social protests against the Ortega-Murillo regime. The young man was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a 600-day fine for the alleged crimes of drug trafficking and controlled substances, under the modality of commercialization to the detriment of health and the State of Nicaragua.
The relatives of the prisoner of conscience have rejected the accusations and have denounced the cruelty against Cerna, pointing out that he suffers “psychological and physical torture”, has little access to hours of sunlight and remains without any justification in “punishment cells”.
The relative of the prisoner of conscience assured that the Prison has even failed to comply with court orders, since it has refused to take him for a medical evaluation, ordered by the executing judge in mid-April, since the young man suffers from epilepsy, which is not controlled by a neurologist; and he has had a dislocated shoulder for two years, which was not operated on because he was imprisoned.
The IACHR, in November 2020, also granted precautionary measures in favor of Cerna. However, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) has denounced that these measures have not been complied with by the State.
