The Prosecutor’s Office announced that the political trial against the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, will begin on Tuesday, March 28. They point him out for the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.
The date of this process was established by Judge Gloria Saavedra of the Tenth Criminal District Court of Managua, and Judge Nadia Tardencilla is the one who will be in charge of complying with the provisions of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The private lawyer of the Bishop of Matagalpa has “begged” to have access to the accusation against the cardinal.
Related news: Regime uses former seminarians expelled for misconduct to accuse Monsignor Álvarez
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is the first bishop of the ecclesiastical province of Nicaragua to be imprisoned by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Other priests, lay people, journalists and seminarians were also taken as political prisoners by the regime. Some are accused of the same crimes as the bishop and others for common crimes.
The priest was violently arrested on August 19, 2022 in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, in the early hours of the morning he was taken out by a strong police force that held him captive for 15 days. He was transferred to Managua to a family home.
On January 10, he was brought before the Ortega justice for an initial hearing, there the court admitted the case, kept him under house arrest and sent him to trial for this Monday morning.
The regime, during the criminal process, will call Matagalpa propagandists and police officers as “witnesses” to simulate “guilt” in the impeachment trial against the bishop. On the list there is a communicator and workers from the mayor’s office of that city.
One of the witnesses is the propagandist of the regime Elba Marina Rayo who works in “Radio Insurrection” that operates within the Department of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). “From where the repression of April 2018 was directed. Before, he embraced Bishop Álvarez, and now he will testify against him,” criticized the former judicial official.
