Human rights defender and president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Nunezrejected the guilty verdict issued yesterday, Wednesday, January 25, against Mildred Lightning Y Miguel Flores, members of the Nicaraguan University Alliance (AUN), for the alleged crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.”
«This is outrageous; here everyone who moves and whoever wants to speak is being silenced or, figuratively speaking, blown off their heads; It is also a way of silencing more people —opponents of the Ortega regime—”, expressed Núñez.
Related news: Nicaraguan dictatorship finds two young members of AUN guilty
He added that in Nicaragua there is no sector of the population that is oblivious to being a victim of “this persecution without limits, because the government does not care about hair, color or size.”
«No one can make any normal movement, they cannot freely exercise their rights or carry out actions that one needs to do in their daily life, because for him —the dictator Daniel Ortega— everyone is suspect; and that is precisely the product of the terror he has (…) because that is the only way to explain why he flies so much with his claws and that he considers everyone an enemy, “said the lawyer.
Regarding the defenselessness of the now political prisoner Miguel Flores, where he was not allowed a trusted lawyer, Núñez said that “the public defender’s office in Nicaragua is part of the repressive apparatus.”
«In the case of Miguel Flores it was a truly serious situation (…) because his technical defender was in another trial that had already started two days before and is still ongoing, but they did not let him name a substitute as he proposed, rather he They appointed a public defender, thus deepening the repression,” he explained.
Related news: 34 young people from AUN have fled Nicaragua due to the persecution of Ortega
He recalled that in the same trial against the members of AUN, in addition to Rayo and Flores, there is a third young man found guilty, but that his family has not wanted to reveal his name.
The Nicaraguan Prosecutor’s Office asked the judge Felix Ernesto Salmeron, of the Fifth Criminal District Court of Managua, 10 years in prison for Flores and eight for Rayo. The reading of the sentence is scheduled for the 30th of this month.
Regarding the list of political prisoners in Nicaragua, of which the two young opponents are already part, Vilma Núñez indicated that “definitely” it is not possible to continue talking about 235 political prisoners, “rather, the figures must be updated because they are already more than 240 prisoners».
AUN: “arbitrary assembly”
For its part, AUN also reacted in a statement to the guilty verdict and described the judicial process as an “arbitrary setup” of the Sandinista dictatorship against the young opponents.
The youth organization also denounced that the regime did not allow the relatives of Flores and Rayo to be present at the hearing held for the students.
“At AUN we are not going to stop demanding their freedom and that of all political prisoners. As Nicaraguans we stand in solidarity with all the relatives of political prisoners, who have suffered this physical separation for more than a year,” the organization wrote.
Rayo and Flores were detained on November 1, 2022, when the Nicaraguan Army intercepted them near the Sapoá River, in Cárdenas, in the department of Rivas.
The action occurred after a search carried out by the military institution at about 6:30 in the morning, while they were moving towards Managua.
