The Ortega justice scheduled for December 1 the oral and public trial against three priests, a deacon, two seminarians and a cameraman who they were kidnapped together with Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, in the Curia of Matagalpa for 15 days, last August. Two drivers of the newspaper La Prensa will also be prosecuted.
The religious are: Ramiro Tijerino Chavezrector general of the John Paul II University; Jose Luis Diaz Cruzvicar of the Cathedral of Matagalpa and his predecessor Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano; the deacon Raul Antonio Vega; the seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza Y Melkin Rye and the layman Sergio Cadena Flores are accused by the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “propagation of false news.”
Judge Nalia Nadezdha Úbeda Obando, of the Fifth Criminal Hearing District of Managua, is in charge of the case, which has been handled with total secrecy. Citizens were kidnapped by the National Policewho at dawn on August 19 entered the Matagalpa Curia and transferred the Catholic faithful to the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
Monsignor Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, was transferred to a family home in Managua, where he is kept under “house arrest.”
The accusation against priests and laity It was presented by the prosecutor Manuel de Jesús Rugama, who has excelled in persecuting political prisoners, as has Judge Úbeda Obando. The preliminary hearing was held on September 22 and the initial hearing on Friday, October 7.
In this last hearing, the priests had private defense, contrary to the preliminary one, when public defenders were imposed on them. Father Tijerino and Eugarrios are being represented by attorney Nohemí Guerrero; the seminarian Centeno, the deacon Vega and Father Díaz are defended by the lawyer José Gerardo González Riega; the seminarian Leiva by the lawyer Norvin Cruz; and the cameraman Cárdenas by the lawyer Aura Estela Alarcón.
Workers of La Prensa are prosecuted
Judge Úbeda Obando agreed on Thursday to prosecute for the alleged crimes of “conspiracy” Y “spread of fake news”to Carlos Lam and Mario Sánchez, two hosts of the newspaper La Prensa, a judicial source informed the Efe news agency.
The judge remanded the two La Prensa hosts to oral and public trial, including the one who mobilized a team from that newspaper to cover the expulsion from the country of 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order. founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, last July.
The court maintains the case as a complex procedure and rejected the arguments of the defense, which alleged, among other things, a violation of due process of the accused because they were arrested in July and charged until last September.
The Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office charged a total of four La Prensa workers, however the other two — a journalist and an editorial assistant — have not been arrested and cannot be prosecuted in absentia, according to the case disclosed by the Nicaraguan internet system. Power of attorney.
In the accusation, the assistant prosecutor Heydi Estela Ramírez Olivas accused the four employees of La Prensa of having violated article 30 of the Special Cybercrime Law, referring to the spread of false news through information and communication technologies. .
Writing of La Prensa in exile
On August 23, the government of Daniel Ortega delivered the building owned by La Prensa, valued at nearly 10 million dollars, to the state-owned National Technological Institute to build a cultural center.
The facilities of La Prensa were taken by force by the National Police on August 13, 2021, when the Nicaraguan authorities alleged that the outlet was allegedly used to commit crimes of “customs fraud, money laundering, goods and assets.”
Its general manager, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, nephew-in-law of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) -who defeated Ortega in the 1990 elections-, was sentenced on March 31 to nine years in prison for the crime of money laundering.
The editorial staff of La Prensa, which now only publishes digitally, was forced into exile last July after the arrest of the two workers who will now go on trial.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the general elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with her main contenders in prison.
