The Nicaraguan opponents Jimmy Antonio Bonilla Gutiérrez, Emmanuel Gutiérrez Larios and the journalist Victor Ticay, who were detained by the authorities in Holy Week, have not been charged and their whereabouts are unknown, family members denounced.
“That they at least say what they are accused of, because not even that. They do not have any accusations, they do not let us see them”, claimed relatives of the opponents from Nandaime, south of Managua.
Nicaraguan justice this week accused at least seven opponents detained even after Easter, however, it keeps Bonilla, Gutiérrez and Ticay in “legal limbo”, relatives said who spoke anonymously with the voice of america for fear of reprisals from the government.
“[Las autoridades] They say they are there, but we have not seen them. We haven’t even talked to them,” the relatives added.
According to Nicaraguan lawyer Yader Morazán, an expert in judicial matters, the government is practicing a “new repressive pattern” that consists of accusing detainees “expressly.”
The government of Daniel Ortega modified in 2021 the penal code and among the changes, it extended the detention time of an individual on suspicion of a crime for up to 90 days, instead of the 48 hours that it contemplated before, but for this a special “guarantee” hearing was held. In recent months, the prosecution process has accelerated, Morazán said. Some opponents have already been charged and the state appears as a victim in court documents, he added.
“They have accused seven people in this new case and it is possible that, under the same pattern, they will accuse more people (…) under guidelines that are generally given for all cases,” Morazán said.
The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the voice of america.
They denounce “revolving door” in Nicaragua
Human rights organizations denounce what they call a “revolving door” by the government of Daniel Ortega, which consists of the release of imprisoned opponents, but new arrests.
At the beginning of February, Ortega released 222 political prisoners and stripped them of their nationality after being welcomed by Washington under a humanitarian parole, however the government resumed the arrests of opponents in April.
The Blue and White Monitoring observatory, which makes monthly reports on State violence, recapitulated that 21 people were detained in Nicaragua for political reasons during Holy Week.
Braulio Abarca, lawyer and human rights defender, told the VOA that “the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues to arbitrarily detain Nicaraguans perceived as oppositionists, which generates a revolving door effect of releasing some and imprisoning others.”
Carlos Guadamuz, a lawyer for the Human Rights Collective, emphasized that the mechanism used by the Ortega government “is a way of freeing itself from international pressure” and at the same time punishing its critics.
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