Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, parish priest of the Church of Perpetual Help in Boaco, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the alleged crime of sexual abuse in a real contest of rape and minor psychological injuries to the detriment of a minor under 12 years of age.
This is the maximum sentence stipulated in Nicaragua, although Judge Edén Aguilar, of the Third Specialized Court for Violence in Managua, added 49 years in prison to the alleged crimes.
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The priest was sentenced to serve his sentence in the National Penitentiary System, known as “La Modelo”. There he must remain until the year 2052. In addition, the justice of the regime disqualified him from an activity that he did not detail.
The Diocese of Granada expressed “its profound pain and suffering upon learning of the sentence” and asked the faithful to continue praying for the imprisoned priests.
Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, 51, became the second priest to be convicted of common crimes in Nicaragua, through trials riddled with irregularities and held with excessive government propaganda.
Relatives of the political prisoners, held captive in “El Nuevo Chipote”, denounced the public exposure to which the inmates were subjected by the regime.
The union leaders were exhibited before the cameras of the government media after spending more than a year in total isolation.
The relatives pointed out that the “informative hearings” held for the prisoners do not exist in the national legal system and their defense attorneys were not notified of them either. The presentation of the 27 prisoners was nothing more than another violation of their human rights.
The Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again, together with Organized Nicaraguan Youth, demanded that the regime present and release the more than 30 young political prisoners. The organizations denounced the conditions of the young political prisoners Lesther Alemán, Max Jerez and Yader Parajón, who were recently exhibited by the dictatorship, and showed “a notable deterioration in health.”
They asked the authorities for an explanation about the background of showing some political prisoners and not others, as in the case of John Cerna and Kevin Solis They have been in jail for more than two years.
The human rights organization pointed out that the regime carries out “media propaganda, which seeks to create a division between the population and the opposition so that they look different, although they are not.”
A group of Nicaraguan exiles met with Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Carlos Giménez, from the Republican Party, to talk about the situation of the more than 190 political prisoners and the violation of human rights in Nicaragua.
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Rubio proposed opening the United States Federal Court so that people who have suffered harm at the hands of the regime can bring their case and seek justice before the Court.
The representatives also expressed their interest in speaking with the State Department and the Treasury Department to establish a system that identifies individuals allied with Daniel Ortega, including businessmen and former guerrillas, who would be based in Miami, “living like kings” in the North American country, according to Rubio.
Opposition organizations demanded that the Nicaraguan Army “comply with the Constitution and stand by the population.”
Youth groups and the Blue and White National Unity referred to the dramatic situation the country is going through, due to the desire of the Ortega Murillo family to stay in power.
They were reminded that this also affects State workers, Army officers and soldiers; and they emphasized that retired General Hugo Torres, an emblematic Sandinista guerrilla, died in prison at the hands of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship, while other senior retired officers have suffered jail and political persecution. The call was made within the framework of the 43rd anniversary of the foundation of the military institution.
