Nicaragua’s Attorney General’s Office announced Friday that eight officials are in prison and will be tried for “fraud” and “misappropriation of public funds,” but the opposition claims that they are a group of Sandinista militants critical of Daniel Ortega’s government.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, which is accused of serving Ortega’s dictates, the eight officials remain in preventive detention to be tried starting on September 11 “given the seriousness of the crimes committed against the public treasury.”
However, opposition media published in exile claimed that the eight are militants of the Sandinista Front who were part of a WhatsApp group called “The Commune”in which they criticized decisions of the Ortega government.
Related news: Sandinista dictatorship accuses members of the WhatsApp group “La Comuna” of “theft,” which they had with Carlos Fonseca Terán
According to these media, they were arrested on July 26 along with Carlos Fonseca Teranson of the founder of the Sandinista Front, Carlos Fonseca Amador, murdered in 1976 under the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.
“The prosecution has charged everyone who was in a WhatsApp group with Carlos Fonseca Terán, except him,” said the website of the newspaper La Prensa, which is published in Costa Rica.
“The friends of Carlos Fonseca Terán are presented by the Prosecutor’s Office as a ‘criminal group’ that stole funds from the public treasury,” he added.
“Although none of the members of ‘La Comuna’ denied Daniel Ortega’s leadership, they did question some of the regime’s decisions,” said the Confidencial portal, which is also published in San José.
He added that the son of the founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is under house arrest.
“Fonseca Terán led the WhatsApp group ‘La Comuna’, however, the regime does not accuse him, nor does it report his house arrest,” Confidencial reported.
The government of Ortega and his powerful wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, hardened its stance against its critics after opposition protests in 2018, which left more than 300 dead in three months, according to the UN.
After accusing them of treason, in 2023 the government released 316 critical politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists from prison, expelled them from the country and stripped them of their nationality and property.
He has also attacked the Catholic Church and closed down some 5,500 NGOs, many of them religious.
