Monsignor Leonardo Urbina Rodríguez, 51 years old and parish priest of the Perpetuo Socorro de Boaco churchwas sentenced to 30 years in prison for the alleged crime of sexual abuse and psychological injuries against a minor under 14 years of age.
The sentence was imposed by Ortega Judge Edén Enrique Aguilar Castro, of the Third Specialized Court for Violence against Women, who found him guilty on August 26, in a secret trial that lasted two days.
According to the sentence, the religious must serve the sentence in the Tipitapa Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo, until July 12, 2052.
Urbina is the second priest convicted by the dictatorship since June 1, when the State’s persecution of religious intensified. The first of them was Manuel Salvador García, parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church in Nandaime, who was found guilty of assaulting a woman. However, she retracted his accusations in the process and ended up being the subject of the rage of the state who prosecuted her for “false testimony”.
The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo prevented Monsignor Urbina from having a private defense attorney. The Ortega judge appointed public defender Jennifer Elieth Hernández Granera as his court-appointed attorney, despite the fact that on July 22, after admitting the resignation of his first private defender, he left open the possibility of appointing a new private defense attorney.
Attacks on the Catholic Church
Ortega has imprisoned, in less than three months, ten priests of the Catholic Church. In addition to García and Urbina, the priest of Mulukukú is detained in El Chipote, Oscar Benavidez Davila currently investigated for ninety days by the Prosecutor’s Office due to a “ghost” crime, but of which the State of Nicaragua recognizes itself as “victim and offended”.
They were joined by the priests José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, first and second vicar of the San Pedro cathedral, respectively; Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the John Paul II University and in charge of the San Juan Bautista parish; the priest Raúl González and the seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira.
While Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, is under house arrest, in a measure that the regime intends to disguise as “home shelter”, in his home in Managua, according to the police note published on Friday, August 19 .
