Ortega judge Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodríguez, head of the Second Criminal District Court of Managua, sentenced six priests and one layman, to ten years in prison respectively, for the alleged crimes of conspiracy and propagation of false news, in a hearing held behind closed doors in the capital’s courts this Friday, February 3.
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.
The seven political prisoners were found guilty by the court, a member of the machinery of Ortega judges responsible for legitimizing trials fabricated by the Prosecutor’s Office, according to legal specialists, on Thursday, January 26. The ruling was made known after four days of marathon hearings, which began on Monday, January 23.
So far in 2023, the Ortega justice system has convicted and sentenced seven religious for the same crimes of conspiracy and false news. The first was the Father Oscar Benavides, parish priest of Mulukukú. Benavides had worked in the Diocese of Matagalpa, where the rest of the religious belong.
After eight days of the trial, many details about the hearings are unknown due to the secrecy imposed by the Ortega regime and the resounding silence of the Catholic hierarchy.
Judicial sources revealed that the priests and the photojournalist used the last word in Thursday’s hearing to rectify that they are innocent and, at the same time, cited biblical verses.
According to the digital system of the Judiciary, the Prosecutor’s Office listed thirteen witnesses; six policemen and seven laymen to participate in the process against the priests and the photographer.
The six religious and the layman were kidnapped in August 2022 together with Monsignor Rolando Álvarez – also a political prisoner and under house arrest – in the episcopal building of Matagalpa for 15 days, besieged by the Police. The religious were transferred from Matagalpa to the Judicial Assistance Directorate (DAJ), El Chipote, on August 19, after the police assault on the Curia.
Two more priests go on trial
Orteguismo continued with the judicial farce against Bishop Álvarez, referring him to trial on January 10 and dictating a house for jail -in which he had remained de facto since August 19-. According to the newspaper La Prensa, the trial against the prelate is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28, 2023, by Judge Tardencilla Rodríguez, who has already sentenced the rest of the religious.
The other pending trial corresponds to Father Enrique Martínez Gamboa, violently captured in his home on October 13, 2022. The date of the trial hearing is also unknown, indicated a source related to the case.
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.
