Lawyer María Oviedo Delgado and banker Luis Rivas Anduray, executive president of Banpro, were sentenced to eight and thirteen years in prison, respectively. The human rights defender was charged with five years in prison for alleged “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and three years for “spreading false news”, while Rivas was sentenced for the alleged commission of three crimes: “undermining national integrity”, “illegal possession of firearms”, and an unknown third party.
The reading of the sentence was carried out this Tuesday, behind closed doors in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, known as El Chipote. Oviedo was present and requested to be allowed to see his children and the entry of a book, confirmed his lawyer, Eber Acevedo.
The political trials of Oviedo and Rivas took place last February 14, declaring them guilty. Defenders of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH), where Oviedo worked as the coordinator of the legal team, pointed out that the Prosecutor’s Office never managed to prove her guilt.
During his intervention in the trial, Oviedo highlighted the irregularities in the process, in charge of the Ortega judge Ulisa Tapia Silva, of the Thirteenth Criminal District Court of Judgment.
The evidence presented by the Public Ministry against the defender includes statements that she offered to the program This weekbroadcast on Facebook and YouTube by the Ortega regime’s television censorship, and testimonies from National Police officers who participated in the “investigative process.”
The CPDH denounced that all the political trials that take place in El Chipote they are riddled with irregularities to due process and the right to defense in judicial proceedings, that include the obstacle to access the files before the trial, the impediment to communicate with the accused and the attitude of the judges who have a clear bias against prisoners of conscience.
13 years in prison for Rivas Anduray
Rivas was captured on the night of June 15, 2021, and since then he has been kept incommunicado in the cells of El Chipote.
In a recent interview with This weekManuel Orozco, an investigator for the Inter-American Dialogue, pointed out that the imprisonment of Rivas “defies logic within the political context because he is a citizen, who has not been directly involved in the country’s politics, party financing or political participation, nor is he a candidate”.
However, he considered that his “sin” – the reason for his imprisonment – is because he was the main executive who had a direct link with the great Nicaraguan capital: Ramiro Ortiz, Carlos Pellas, among other people and that “constitutes a token of economic and political extortion on the part of Rosario Murillo, in particular, who is the person who has been the interlocutor between the regime and big capital until April 2018. His imprisonment occupies a place within the sphere of destruction country’s economy and politics”he expressed.
The National Police indicated that Rivas was being investigated for allegedly “carrying out acts that undermine independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, and requesting military interventions.”
Also for allegedly “organizing with financing from foreign powers to carry out acts of terrorism and destabilization, propose and manage economic, commercial and financial operations blockades against the country and its institutions”; and “demand, praise and applaud the imposition of sanctions against the State of Nicaragua and its citizens, and harm the supreme interests of the nation.”
