A Nicaraguan judge sentenced four priests to 10 years in prison on Monday; two seminarians and a photojournalist on charges of treason and propagation of false news, the same crimes that have been charged against critics of President Daniel Ortega, denounced a local human rights organization.
According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), the six people were accompanying Bishop Rolando Álvarez in the diocese of Matagalpa, a city in the north of the country, when they were arrested and transferred to the maximum security prison known as the Chipote. Álvarez is awaiting trial on the same charges, although he is under house arrest.
The Catholic Church has not made statements after the sentence handed down by the Nicaraguan justice, accused of being controlled by Ortega, however the priest Edwin Román, exiled in Miami, wrote on Twitter that the priests were sentenced “unfairly by the dictatorship”. .
“My brother priests imprisoned and unjustly convicted by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo… are living firsthand what we priests preach to the people of God: ‘Resist firm in faith,'” the prelate wrote.
According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), the six people sentenced were also “disqualified for life” from holding public office and popular election.
“From Cenidh we condemn these perverse actions of the regime that violate human rights,” the organization added.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a social and political crisis since 2018, when protests arose against President Ortega, which the president classified as “an attempted coup d’état.”
Ortega has accused the Catholic Church of being part of that plan, for which reason human rights organizations point out that the president has begun a fierce hunt against the priests, who are considered the last bastion of criticism of the president.
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