The development of trials against political prisoners Lesther German and Ana Margarita Vijil carried out last week in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance (DAJ), known as El Chipote, was a “circus” orchestrated by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, their relatives denounced in an interview on the program This weekbroadcast on Facebook and YouTube in the face of television censorship imposed by Ortega.
Alemán and Vijil were found guilty for allegedly breaking Law 1055, known as the Sovereignty Law, one of the four repressive laws approved in late December 2020 by the Ortega-Murillo regime. Prisoners of conscience Dora María Téllez, Miguel Mora, María Fernanda Flores, Yader Parajón and Yaser Vado They were also sentenced in the first week of trials led by the Ortega justice system.
Lesbia Alfaro, mother of the student leader Lesther Alemán, described the trial held —on February 3— against her son as “a circus”, assuring that it was “totally ridiculous”, because “neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor the judge allowed the the defense”.
“Lesther was also clear that what they are doing is a circus. In the eight minutes they gave me to talk to him, he told me: ‘Mother, the circus has started, don’t worry, this is political, be strong because God makes us raise our heads because we are innocent,” he said.
Ana Lucía Álvarez, a relative of Ana Margarita Vijil, who belongs to the Unamos organization, formerly known as the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), considered that the proceedings against prisoners of conscience were “an entire judicial farce”, denouncing that basic elements such as the right to defense and the principle of publicity and that those who directed the process —judges and prosecutors— were “political operators” of the Sandinista Front who only “seeked to criminalize the exercise of citizen rights.”
He highlighted that the The fact that the hearing against the political prisoners was held in a police station, in this case the Chipote facilities, provides an “intimidating element for the lawyers, added to the disproportionate police deployment in those facilities, which creates a totally intimidating environment, which it hinders the full exercise of defense, because those who enter do so in a condition of intimidation and vulnerability.”
“It is living proof of the lack of autonomy, of the lack of independence of those judges, of the lack of autonomy of those prosecutors who have agreed to do that, of the lack of autonomy of a Police that agrees and lends itself in terms of their facilities to do that. So, from that first element he realizes what is happening in these judicial farces, ”he denounced.
Álvarez and Alfaro point out that their relatives were not even notified that they were going to trial and were not given a private audience with their defense attorneys. Alemán and Vijil, detained on June 5 and 13, 2021, respectively, have only received five visits from their relatives throughout this time of imprisonment and are not allowed visits or communication with their lawyers.
“That they are not notified implies an element of torture. Imagine a person who does not know that he is going to trial, suddenly a guard arrives in his cell and puts on some shoes, they think they are going to one more interrogation, and suddenly a room full of people opens, with a judge, with others, they did not even know that they were going to a trial. That is unacceptable anywhere in the world,” said Álvarez.
He also pointed out that in all the processes the principle of publicity has been “violated” because only one family member is allowed to enter, when these hearings should be public, not only for family members, but for the media.
“Manufactured” and “Proving Nothing” Evidence
Alemán’s mother assessed that the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office during the trial did not prove anything and also denounced that much of it was fabricated. He explained that the evidence included tweets in which Alemán indicates his return from exile; some posts from a fake Facebook account where he allegedly requests sanctions from the United States Department of State; stickers of the United States flag, which were stolen from her house on June 5, 2021 that Alemán was detained and that she kept to put on a shirt or hat; an image of how a Molotov cocktail is made, allegedly taken from Lesther’s computer; and the testimony of police officers who contradicted themselves with the version of events.
Alvarez revealed that in the case of the evidence presented against Ana Margarita, for example, retweets and interviews were included in which at no time was anything incited against the national territory, nor were armed interventions.
“In the case of Ana Margarita, the retweet she made of publications by Josep Borrell, by Laura Chinchilla, and an interview she gave to Carlos Salinas, which was also out of date, were included, while in the case of Dora (María Téllez) included a retweet from (José Miguel) Vivanco, who is a human rights defender,” he explained.
He stressed that “in no case in those retweets and those interviews are they giving up the national territory. In no case in these interviews are they asking for an armed intervention. What those opinions are doing is asking for free and transparent elections, what they were doing is asking for respect and guarantees for human rights, what they were doing in those interviews is exercising rights protected by the Political Constitution of Nicaragua.”
Family members denounce that the purpose of the regime, by criminalizing the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, is to “that citizens remain silent, so that we do not continue giving our opinion, so that we do not continue using social networks”.
Torture against political prisoners persists
Relatives of political prisoners They denounce that the “torture” against their relatives continues. Alfaro indicates that in the case of Lesther, the lack of attention to her problem of pain in her leg persists and they continue not to deliver the medicines that she took to Chipote a month ago. “Where he is, there is no voice or vote to follow up on the problem with his leg,” he denounced. He added that his son continues to be subjected to strenuous and constant interrogations.
Álvarez points out that the condition in which Ana Margarita and Dora María Téllez are kept “is a regime of sustained torture, a regime of aggravated torture, according to human rights organizations, due to the long period of time in isolation.”
“Ana Margarita, Suyen (Barahona, president of Unamos), and Dora (María Téllez), have guards outside their cells so they can’t talk to people who are nearby, she denounced.
He indicates that another of his relatives, the prisoner of conscience Tamara Dávila, “is in a bolted cell and the only time he sees what is happening around him is when they open the space where they give him food, when he goes to the infirmary or when going to an interrogation, which is totally unacceptable.”
Both women reiterated that the demand of the relatives of political prisoners is the “unconditional, absolute and guaranteed” freedom of the more than 170 prisoners of conscience that the Ortega-Murillo regime maintains in the different prisons of the country.
