Judge Octavio Rothschuh Andino, president of Chamber One of the Court of Appeals of Managua (TAM), was in charge of notifying 16 of the 27 political prisoners presented in illegal “informational hearings” about the status of their respective judicial processes, without having jurisdiction. His actions —assert independent lawyers— correspond more to that of a “political operator”, who puts his loyalty to the Government above the administration of justice attached to the law and supposes a commission of a crime.
Rothschuh, accompanied by fellow magistrates Ángela Dávila Navarrete and Rosa Argentina Solís, members of the TAM, repeated the same paragraph with slight changes to the political prisoners held in El Chipote. These were taken in two groups of ten and one of seven to the Managua Courts for three consecutive days: from August 30 to September 1.
“The corresponding resolution was established, it was notified in the terms established by law. In addition to that, the appeal requested by the defense attorney was processed, he expressed grievances and the response to grievances that corresponds to the Public Ministry is in process, we are in the analysis of determining in the writ of appeal if this complies with the legal requirements so that the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) resolves what corresponds by law”, Rothschuh repeated to each of the 16 political prisoners in the short hearings, to which only the prisoners had access. government propaganda outlets.
The magistrate informed the political prisoners that their defense attorneys filed appeals in which they indicated the damages or violations —“grievances” in judicial jargon— contemplated in the sentences issued by the TAM. Said Court ratified the sentences of between seven and thirteen years in prison against prisoners of conscience imposed by Ortega judges in El Chipote, explained defense lawyers.
Among the grievances presented by the lawyers include the violation of the constitutional rights of the defendant, such as free and private communication with his defense attorney; a fact that has been violated since the beginning of the judicial process, including during the political trial, in which the lawyers barely managed to talk for five to ten minutes with the accused. Also, violations of national or international human rights instruments and the Code of Criminal Procedure are included.
One of the lawyers said, anonymously, that once the TAM admits the extraordinary appeal, the Public Ministry has 20 days to respond to the grievances presented by the defense attorney. After that period, whether or not the Prosecutor’s Office has responded, the Court must refer the case to the Court.
“He (Rothschuh) is confessed in his own hearing in saying that these cases are in the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) and not in his hands. That is, they have already lost the competition to meet them. That compromises them”, said the specialist in Law, Yader Morazán.
The other lawyer said that the TAM after passing sentence only has powers for two orders; the one of admission or denial to process of cassation and the one of remission of the file to the Court.
Militant of the Sandinista Front
Rothschuh, with 28 years of judicial experience, was elected president of the TAM on July 2, 2021, with the support of Justices Solís and Dávila. He had previously served as the seventh judge of the Criminal Trial District of Managua.
According to a newspaper review, Justice Rothschuh is a FSLN militant. In 2019, she participated in the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, accompanying the then president of the TAM, Gerardo Rodriguezdismissed two years later for processing an appeal from the Citizens for Freedom party.
For one of the lawyers consulted by CONFIDENTIAL Judge Rothschuh’s actions are part of his role as an “obedient operator”, who expects to “be rewarded” even violating the law and the laws. The expectation of him, he considers, is that “he will be rewarding that fidelity by appointing him a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice.”
Another lawyer, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said that the magistrate is following orders and in some way “they also aspire to win points in the face of a probable election as Supreme Court magistrate. That should not be ruled out because they have their own personal ambitions.”
The Supreme Court of Justice, led by Judge Alba Luz Ramos – sanctioned by the international community–, maintains five vacancies in its dome since last year. Those five appointments, which must be made by the National Assembly, are still pending due to disagreements between the presidential couple, sources from the Judicial Power reported, without providing the details of the presidential struggle for a note published in CONFIDENTIAL in June 2022.
“He knows that this is his golden opportunity to fill one of those vacancies and what better than showing loyalty. Today you no longer go to any position of minister, or anything, without demonstrating your loyalty to the Government, “said the first lawyer cited.
The lawyers consider this possibility after several of the judges who sentenced political prisoners through questionable judicial processes between 2018 and 2019 were “awarded” by the Judiciary, appointing them magistrates.
“All those who have been promoted after April 2018 are related, in some way, to illicit activities due to repression because that is the pattern that the Judicial Power has been reproducing,” said Morazán, who was an official of that power of the State and is exiled.
The magistrate’s actions also show, according to Morazán, public officials “intimidated and forced to do things that they have never done because it does not exist in the law” and that “are illegal.”
In the case of Rothschuh Andino, he is not considered a mediocre professional and “he knows what he is doing and knows that he is committing himself,” he said.
This week the human rights defender, Vilma Núñez assured that the judges and magistrates are incurring in the commission of crimes, with these “informative” hearings without legal basis and that “they violate the guarantees of due process to the detriment of the accused and make them criminals in their functions, who commit crimes against the administration of justice”, stressed Núñez.
“They can commit the crime of prevarication for acting against express law,” warned the defender.
Last June, a resolution of the European Parliament requested the European Union to sanction fourteen judges and three magistrates of Appeals, including Rothschuh.
The MEPs called “on the European Union to demand that the Nicaraguan regime, in particular its judges, be held accountable for the repression in the country and the judicial proceedings instituted against opposition personalities and other critics”, for which they “request the Council to immediately start the procedures to include the judges in the list of people sanctioned by the EU”.
