The Ortega judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodríguez, responsible for the Second Criminal Trial District Court of Managua, advanced the trial against the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, prosecuted for the alleged commission of the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “propagation of false news”.
The political trial against the Catholic hierarch had been scheduled by the judge of the Tenth Criminal District of the Managua Court, Gloria Saavedra, for March 28. However, Judge Tardencilla brought the process forward to next February 15.
The date change has not yet been registered in the electronic system of the Judiciary, but it was confirmed by relatives of the bishop, who are unaware of the reasons that led the judge to make the move.
The advance of the trial against Monsignor Álvarez occurs one day after Tardencilla sentenced to ten years in prison the six priests and one layman, who were kidnapped together with the bishop in the Matagalpa curia, for the alleged crimes of conspiracy and propagation of false news.
The parents convicted by the Ortega court are Ramiro Tijerino Chávez, general rector of the Juan Pablo II University; José Luis Díaz Cruz, vicar of the Cathedral of Matagalpa and his predecessor Sadiel Antonio Eugarrios Cano; Deacon Raúl Antonio Vega; seminarians Darvin Leiva Mendoza and Melkin Centeno, as well as photojournalist Sergio Cárdenas Flores.
In addition to condemning ten years in jail for religious, Tardencilla “disqualified them for life from holding public office and popular election.” A fact that the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) described on Tuesday as “an accessory penalty” and “a legal aberration.”
The case against Monsignor Álvarez
The initial hearing against Monsignor Álvarez It was carried out behind closed doors on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, carried out 144 days after the religious was confined house by prison in Managua by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, where he still remains awaiting trial.
Álvarez, one of the prophetic voices of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, recognized for his pastoral work in northern Nicaragua and his defense of human rights against state oppression, in 2022 he became the first bishop of the Catholic Church to be politically prosecuted under the Ortega regime.
The harassment against Monsignor Rolando Álvarez dates back to 2018, but the last episodes occurred in 2022, before the Police kidnapped him. Between May and August of that year, Álvarez was followed and finally besieged in the Matagalpa Curia from August 4 and on the 19th of that month he was transferred to Managua, accused of fomenting violence.
Almost four months after this arbitrary detention, the regime’s prosecutors charged him with the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “propagation of false news.” They are the same crimes attributed to other political prisoners in processes lacking guarantees for the accused.
