Mgr Jose Leonardo Urbina Rodriguez, parish priest of the Church of Perpetuo Socorro de Boaco, was sent to oral and public trial for the alleged crime of rape of a minor under 14 years of age and minor psychological injuries to the detriment of the 12-year-old victim of initials MJVS.
The initial hearing was held this Thursday, July 21, in the Managua courts and was in charge of the Judge of the Second Criminal District of Adolescents and Specialized in Violence of Managua, Miroslava Calero.
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The court maintained the preventive detention against the 51-year-old religious. For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office assured that it had police expert witnesses, as well as the Institute of Legal Medicine, which proves that the priest allegedly committed the crime on December 3, 2021 and April 2022.
The trial date will be established by the judge specialized in wine, assigned by the Office for the Reception of Cases and Documents (Ordice) of the Judicial Complex of Managua.
Propaganda media portray mother of alleged victim
Like something never seen in a trial for rape of a minor, government propaganda media showed the face of the minor’s mother as well as her name that corresponds to the initials BRSM, who attacked the prelate.
«Old wretch I hate you, why did you do that to her? She is my daughter; You’re going to pay for it, old wretch. Judge I ask you as a mother, I ask you for justice; my daughter is suffering and you can see how I feel as a mother, and I ask the people of Boaco to support me, why do they support him if he is a rapist; he raped my daughter, damned old man I hate you », were part of the woman’s statements, which were disseminated in official media.
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The exhibition by the media of government propaganda occurred in violation of the provisions of the Code for Children and Adolescents, which establishes that “The State will respect the right of the girl, the boy and the adolescent to preserve their identity, including nationality, name and family relationships, in accordance with the law.”
Accusation against Monsignor Urbina
According to the accusation presented by the Ortega prosecutor Emmanuel Alvarez, Monsignor Urbina Rodríguez, «in 2016 he met the lady (of initials TC), who is the paternal grandmother of the victim of initials MJVS, and due to the degree of trust between the accused priest and the girl’s grandmother, he took advantage of this circumstance to approach to the victim and managed to gain her trust to such an extent that the girl recognized him as her godfather».
It details that in December 2021, the priest asked the woman for permission to go with the 12-year-old victim to buy tortillas, so in a van he moved “together with the girl victim and another young man they went to the tortilla shop located in front of to a convenience store in the Alcides Miranda neighborhood, in Boaco».
“Upon arriving at the tortilla shop, the priest told the young man to get out of the truck to buy the tortillas and then return on foot, while the priest left in the vehicle together with the girl victim, who told him to go to the front passenger seat, and then Father Urbina drove the vehicle towards kilometer 89 of the Boaco-Managua Highway, in a little-traveled and hilly area on the riverbank, where he parked the truck and touched the girl in the breasts, kissed her neck and told the girl to have sexual relations, to which the victim refused, “adds the complaint.
The prosecutor mentioned that in April 2022, the priest again asked the minor’s grandmother for authorization to go buy tortillas, and in the van he carried out the vaginal rape. He added that the priest threatened to kill the minor if she told about the alleged abuse of her.
Related news: Ortega police arrest Monsignor Leonardo Urbina for alleged rape
As for the witnesses against the religious, the Prosecutor’s Office has nine people, among which four politicians, two forensic experts and the testimonies of the minor’s mother and grandmother stand out. In addition, they will present the testimony of the alleged victim as evidence for the prosecution.
Monsignor Urbina was arrested by the Ortega Police on July 13; With this new arrest, there are already two religious that the Nicaraguan dictatorship charges with common crimes.
The first was Father Manuel Salvador García, a parish priest in Nandaime, convicted of exposing people to danger and for the alleged assault on a woman, who denied that she had been assaulted by the priest, who was later accused and convicted of false testimony.
