The annual report of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) determined that the Daniel Ortega regime violated 16 human rights during the so-called “mistrials” or “political trials” against opponents, alleging that these were carried out “on sight, patience and complicity of a judiciary without independence.
Among these violations of the law, which left more than thirty opponents sentenced under alleged spurious accusations, the right to physical, mental and moral integrity, to individual freedom, to their honor and reputation, to the inviolability of your address and your communications of all kinds.
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The right to equality before the law was also violated —because the judicial authority did not give anything of importance to the situation of kidnapped opponents—, based on the principle of legality, arbitrary imprisonment
Regarding due process, Cenidh reported that human rights defenders point out that the Public Ministry issued a statement prior to the start of the trials in which it already referred to the prisoners of conscience as criminals without even having started the trials in their against.
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Likewise, they were denied the right to trials without delay by a competent authority. They recalled that in October 2021 the processing of trials was suspended, alleging judicial burden.
Another violation of the human rights of the kidnapped political opponents was that all the procedural acts were carried out in private and in the facilities of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as “El Nuevo Chipote” in Managua, a place where more than 40 opponents are being held. .
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Regarding the defense, the Nicaraguan justice system denied the right to choose a defense attorney and the right to effective judicial protection, thus imposing public defenders on them.
Political prisoners were also denied free and private communication with their defender, before, during and after the oral and public trials. In addition, the lawyers were limited to interact with their clients; They were only allowed to communicate for approximately three minutes each day of the hearings.
Cenidh denounced that the express consent of the defendant was not taken into account, but that the judge imposed public defenders as substitutes for private defense, even against the will of the defendant and against the person exercising the private defense, violating as well as article 108 of the Criminal Procedure Code
The Ortega dictatorship denied the defendants the right to have adequate time and means for their defense. The partiality of the judicial authorities in the processing of trials was also evident.
“All the requests of the Prosecutor’s Office were declared valid and the exact sentence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office was even imposed, even when it was not substantiated, evidently violating the principle of equality before the law,” Cenidh remarked.
List of political prisoners on the rise
In 2022, a total of 46 detainees faced proceedings at the facilities of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance; 35 are being held in the cells of that police complex and another 11 under house arrest.
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The crimes imposed on the majority were conspiracy, undermining national integrity, money laundering and cybercrime. The list of political hostages to date exceeds 230, according to human rights organizations.
The number of prisoners could increase because the Ortega and Murillo regime continues its repression against all sectors of civil society.
