The Ortega justice found Mildred Rayo and Miguel Flores, members of the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN), guilty of the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news, the student organization reported on January 26.
The young opponents, who were detained by the military on November 1, 2022, near the border with Costa Rica, They were prosecuted in a closed-door trial held this Wednesday, November 25, at the Managua Judicial Complex, according to AUN.
“Félix Ernesto Salmerón Moreno, judge of the Fifth Criminal District of the Managua constituency, operator of the Sandinista regime, handed down a sentence in a montage where, from the Judiciary as an executioner, they use laws designed to criminalize honest and innocent young people,” the organization denounced. youth opposition, through a statement.
They request eight years in prison against young people
The organization also denounced that, during the trial against the youths, “their relatives were not allowed to enter the hearing,” whose trial they described as an “arbitrary setup against their freedom.” The Prosecutor’s Office requested eight years in prison for each of them.
AUN maintained that the accused youths belong to a group of more than 200 Nicaraguans considered political prisoners by humanitarian organizations, who are imprisoned after having participated in anti-government protests or criticized the Daniel Ortega regime.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) denounced that Flores “was in the worst defenselessness because they did not allow him a private lawyer.” They indicated that the entire trial “was conducted in an environment of illegalities.”
The body condemned the lack of guarantees of due process and the violation of human rights by the Judiciary, describing the hearing as a “judicial farce.” At the same time, they demanded the freedom of the youth and all the prisoners of conscience.
??? Today at 6:30 pm the judicial farce against the members of @AUNNicaragua.
The Nicaraguan “justice” found them guilty for the alleged crimes of Conspiracy to undermine the national integrity and propagation of false news. #IsMistrial pic.twitter.com/RNiZJkvbaE— Cenidh (@cenidh) January 26, 2023
Four members of AUN convicted
Rayo and Flores join Lesther Alemán and Max Jerez, both AUN leaders arrested in 2021, as part of a wave of captures by the Government against various country leaders in a context of national elections, in which Daniel Ortega guaranteed himself power for a new period with its main competitors in prison.
German and Jerez They were also convicted of the same crimes for which Rayo and Flores were tried. Both student leaders remain in the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), El Chipote, isolated, without the right to regular visits and without access to specialized medical care.
According to data endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), there are at least 255 political prisoners in Nicaragua, including opposition leaders, students, peasants, businessmen, human rights defenders, feminists, journalists, religious leaders, and others.
The capture of Ortega’s critics began after April 2018, when a popular revolt broke out over controversial social security reforms that later turned into a demand for the president’s resignation, because he responded with force.
These anti-government demonstrations were reduced with armed attacks that, according to the IACHR, left at least 355 dead, of which Ortega, who has said that it was an attempted coup, has admitted 300 victims.
The 2018 crisis worsened in the following years with national and municipal elections reported for alleged fraud by the excluded opposition and a large part of the international community.
