Exercising the right to the last word in court, they all emphasized that they are innocent. In the penalty debate, the prosecution asked that Tardencilla impose 10 years in prison on them.
Meanwhile, in a different process, but for the same alleged crimes, Judge Nancy Aguirre Gudiel would have sentenced the priest to 8 years in prison Oscar Danilo Benavides Dávila, parish priest of the Espíritu Santo Parish in Mulukukú, ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Siuna, in the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast, who is imprisoned in the Tipitapa Penitentiary System.
However, in the Nicarao online management system of the Judiciary, the sentence is still not public. Even the defense of Father Benavides has filed at least three writings, dated January 27 and 31, as well as February 1, requesting “copies to prepare the appeal.”
They ask that they allow breviaries and copies of the accusation
While, in the online file of the other priests of Matagalpa, on January 30 one of the defenses asked Judge Tardencilla to allow the entry of “a breviary for each priest, seminarian and deacon in each cell.”
The breviary, also called the Liturgy of the Hours, is a book used mainly by the clergy and religious and which brings together the prayers, biblical readings and psalms for the liturgical year. In this process there were also different unsuccessful requests from the defenses, to obtain copies even of the accusation.
In 2022, the Ortega justice system sentenced the parents Manuel García and Leonardo Urbina for committing alleged common crimes. The first was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison and the second, 30 years in prison.
On these cases and the latest imprisonments of religious, the leaders of the Catholic Church have remained silent. That mutism has been questioned by the same priestsparishioners, human rights defenders for not raising their voices in the face of an avalanche of attacks by the Government against the religious institution.
