Lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina denounced that Catholic religious who are political prisoners of the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship are subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Nicaraguan prisons. The regime keeps a dozen Catholic priests, seminarians and journalists in prison, including the Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez Lagos.
“The Nicaraguan justice system, which is characterized by practicing corruption, nepotism, inhumane treatment and, for not acting in accordance with the law but rather at the mercy of what the Executive Power orders, has fabricated 15 criminal proceedings against the members of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church as a way of taking revenge on the clergy and turning off the prophetic voice of the gospel,” he said in an interview with Article 66.
“It is not enough for the dictatorship to violate the human rights of each one of them and it is executing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that is also a hallmark of Nicaraguan prisons,” he added.
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The expert in human rights and corruption issues stated that when the religious are brought to trial “they are putting shackles on their feet and hands to move them from one place to another and they do this to cause as much damage as possible and in this way send a clear message to the outside of what could happen to those who they decide to prosecute.
Molina considers that the Ortega Murillo dictatorship has been cruel to priests and religious because it has not managed to “subdue” them. He assured that “Sandinismo seeks servants to flatter and bless all the wickedness and illegality that they are committing and the clergy are not willing to do that and what they do is continue to denounce injustices because the gospel itself announces and denounces.”
“Illegal legal proceedings”
He added that the judicial processes against the members of the Church have been plagued with irregularities since the way they were arrested, which he described as “illegality.” In addition, other inconsistencies are the times of investigation and trials. “Not even the unconstitutional laws that they designed in recent months are complying with it,” he explained.
«The technical defense is not allowed and it is imposed on a puppet public defender who will logically act in favor of the aggressor State and not the victim who in this case are the religious, even though the dictatorship presents them as defendants/criminals. They are processes where they present false witnesses and evidence without any merit. And I can assure that the sentence of each one is already elaborated, “he warned.
The Ortega y Murillo regime has imprisoned a dozen religious those who have been accused of common crimes and others for crimes of treason against the homeland, such as the fabricated charges against opposition leaders sentenced to between eight and thirteen years in prison.
