The sole local judge of Nandaime, Jaime Aguilar, sentenced the priest Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez to two years in prison, for the alleged crime of threatening five people with weapons; making him the first religious imprisoned by the Daniel Ortega regime that increases the persecution of him against the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
The reading of the sentence against the priest took place on the morning of Wednesday, June 22, when the religious was transferred to the Granada Penitentiary System, where he will remain in prison, according to the court ruling.
The priest was accused of this crime after the night of May 30, he went out to the atrium of the Jesús de Nazareno church -also known as El Calvario- in Nandaime, Granada, with a machete in hand in a defensive attitude before a group of villagers who shouted expletives at him like “murderer”.
Since his arrest, on June 2, it was known that he was accused of “physical violence in an ideal contest of psychological violence”, against Martha Candelaria Rivas Hernández, the alleged victim, whom the regime also arrested after refusing to sign the complaint and deny the intentional assault.
However, until this Wednesday it was known, publicly, this second case for which there is already a sentence issued in a record time of 21 days, and in which the judge granted the maximum sentence of two years and a 200-day fine -the conviction ranges from six months to two years in prison and from 100 to 200 days fine, according to article 186 of the Penal Code.
Martha Candelaria Rivas Hernández, alleged victim of the priest, explained that the altercation with the residents occurred after her daughter left the church asking for help because, accidentally, the religious hit her with a lock on her right eye. The subjects, from outside the Church, did not stop insulting the priest while recording a video, which was later used by the official propaganda in a smear campaign against García Rodríguez.
According to the judgment in case 0026-0780-22PN, the priest is the “only direct perpetrator criminally responsible for the crime of threat” to the detriment of Derek Santiago Rueda, Manuel Alfredo López Tórrez, Kevin José Espinoza Rueda, Lester Javier Chavarría Miranda and Cristhian David Torrez Romero; These last two gave statements to official media after what happened with the priest.
In the document held by CONFIDENTIAL, but that has still been published in the Judicial Power system, they point out that “the action of threatening him with a machete in hand and hitting him repeatedly at the church gates -in reference to the priest’s action- resulted in five people being threatened in unfortunate circumstances” .
Until now, neither the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) nor the Diocese of Granada have ruled on the case of the religious.
Judge María José Zapata Morales, of the Second Local Criminal Court of Granada, ordered preventive detention against Martha Candelaria Rivas Hernández, 44 years old, on June 21, four days after he retracted his accusation against the priest.
Rivas Hernández was accused of “false testimony” by the Public Ministry, represented at the preliminary hearing by Annye Soogey Rodríguez. The now accused she could face jail with a sentence that ranges between three and five years.
The woman changed some aspects related to the first version of the events, for which the priest was arrested on June 2, and accused of “physical violence in an ideal contest of psychological violence.”
The alleged victim assured that everything was an “accident and that is why he did not sign the complaint.” She reported that on May 30, 2022, she went to the parish in Nandaime, accompanied by two of her children, both minors. According to her, after dinner, her children went to watch television, while she and the priest “shared a few drinks.”
The discussion allegedly occurred when she checked the religious’s cell phone. “He told me that it was not what I was thinking, and he went to the gate, the gate area was dark, I go behind and he has his back, I am on his left, and he told me that you came to make a claim , where he tells me that he raised his hand, I bend down and I see that blood comes out and I called my daughter and told her: come, the father hit me, ”said the woman.
She indicated that the priest apologized and even put a towel with chamomile on him, then they heard a commotion and that was when the priest went out into the street with a machete, in a sequence of images used by the official media to project the image of a violent religious.
The woman’s daughter confirmed before the judge that she was never present when the alleged attack took place and only knew about it when her mother told her. “We went to visit her father at church, I saw her beaten and out of desperation I went out and asked for help and told them to call the police and they told me they didn’t have the number. Then two bolonazos were heard and Father Manuel came out with a machete,” the young woman narrated.
The alleged victim and now accused, also clarified that the “intimate friendship” that he said he had with the priest referred to “that I came to tell him my things,” he said before the judge. Convincingly, the woman said this time that she was not a partner “of Father Manuel.”
