Ortega judge Nancy Aguirre Gudiel sentenced the priest Oscar Danilo Benavides Davila to eight years in prison for the alleged crimes of conspiracy and propagation of false news, in a hearing held this Tuesday, January 24, 2023, in the capital’s courts, confirmed sources related to the case and the digital media outlet Mosaico CSI.
The sentence has not yet been published in the virtual system of the Judiciary. According to CSI Mosaic, the priest’s defense has presented at least three writings; the last one on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, requesting copies of the document to prepare the appeal.
The priest Benavides was prosecuted and sentenced for crimes, which according to legal specialists, have been instrumentalized by the Ortega justice to punish opponents and civic and political leaders, and priests in arbitrary trials. Six other religious and a layman were also found guilty and sentenced for the same crimes this Friday.
Benavides, who served 50 years in prison last December, was the parish priest of the Espíritu Santo church, in Mulukukú, belonging to the Diocese of Siuna, in the North Caribbean. However, he is originally from San Isidro, Matagalpa.
Prosecutor’s Office: priest obeyed Bishop Álvarez
In a published report by the local outlet Mosaico CSI They assure that in the accusation against Father Benavides, the Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of deploying “a destabilizing campaign, through a complete network of links established in local radio stations”, which are at the service of Bishop Rolando Álvarez- who has become a political prisoner and is under house arrest. more than four months ago.
The Public Ministry classifies Álvarez as a “ringleader of illegal actions” – without determining which ones – which he uses to manipulate information and generate false news, “inciting hatred to activate the actions of criminal groups with a view to altering and breaking the constitutional order ”.
The priest Benavides allegedly received and carried out “the instructions” of Monsignor Álvarez to “resize an alleged social unrest that they themselves create, masking themselves in sensitive issues such as social assistance, charity, faith promotion, evangelization…” For this, the father used YouTube and radio programs, through which he “incited hatred against the Government.”
Denounce the kidnapping of Monsignor Álvarez and his companions in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, last August, as an act of police siege against the Catholic Church by Father Benavides, was a “way of distorting the truth of the facts, looking for disqualify our police authorities at all costs”, reads the judicial text, reviewed by Mosaico CSI.
The Prosecutor’s Office also assures that Father Benavides, from the pulpit of the Espíritu Santo parish, allegedly “has incited the population of the community, of his area of influence, to violence, to disobedience, which generates discontent and nonconformity in the population that wants peace and tranquility”. They also blame him for exalting the United States sanctions against the Ortega regime for violation of human rights and corruption.
Alleged “evidence” of manipulation
The Prosecutor’s Office assured that a “proof” of the “manipulation and misinformation” by Father Benavides was the attack by the Police to Jesus of Divine Mercy Parish in the municipality of Sébaco, on August 1. However, the Ortega justice does not explain what the relationship of the facts is with the role of the accused father, but they do assure that they are “part of the plan to destabilize the country… under the supposed religious activism.”
On that occasion, the Police violated the Catholic temple to confiscate the equipment of the Sébaco Catholic radio station, which hours before the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor) had just closed along with nine other stations belonging to the Diocese of Matagalpa. The father, now in exile, Uriel Vallejos, denounced the police raid on his social networks and the parishioners turned to support the priest, but they were repressed by the riot police and he was besieged for three days in the rectory.
The version of the Prosecutor’s Office is that the people “obstructed the proper functions of the Police…”, that they were “providing assurance to the formal notification” of Telcor workers.
Stay in El Chipote
The trial against the priest Benavides was held in less than eight hours this Monday, January 16, at the Tenth Court of the Criminal Trial District of Managua. It is unknown if the father will be transferred to another prison, since he currently remains in the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), El Chipote.
As part of the evidence, according to the Mosaic outlet, the Prosecutor’s Office pointed to four videos that the father had on his phone and were related to acts of religious persecution. They also ensure that the priest, during a mass in the Church in Mulukukú, “exhorted the parishioners to”…that no one lend themselves to the game…the attacks on the Catholic Church are part of the repressive strategy of the Ortega Murillo dictatorship.” But no further details of the trial hearing are known due to the secrecy imposed by the Judiciary.
The state of physical and psychological health of the priest Benavides, captured two hours after his last Sunday mass on August 14, 2022, officiated in the Immaculate Conception chapel, is unknown.
