Bertha Valle and Victoria Cárdenas, wives of the presidential candidates and political prisoners, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro, respectively, made an urgent call for all political prisoners to be released because their lives “are at risk.” “We are very concerned about the health of these people. We believe that every moment, every minute in those cells, his health is deteriorating in a galloping way,” Cárdenas said during a virtual conference.
“I fear for the life of my husband, Juan Sebastián Chamorro, and for the rest of the detainees,” she said, after this Thursday, both Chamorro and Maradiaga together with the political prisoners José Adán Aguerri, and José Pallais were sentenced to 13 years in prison for the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.” For the same crime, the political prisoners, Violeta Granera and Tamara Dávila, were sentenced to eight years and the presidential candidate, Arturo Cruz, to nine years in prison.
During almost nine months of confinement, Cárdenas and Valle – who are out of the country – have not had access to communicate with their husbands. This is considered torture, not only for prisoners of conscience but also for their families. “Their lives are at risk, there are going to be conditions that are going to be permanent, permanent damage to them – political prisoners – due to the cruel treatment to which they are being subjected,” Valle said.
Maradiaga has lost about 50 pounds and remains in his cell in the dark. Meanwhile, Chamorro has lost about 25 pounds and must endure the lights on day and night. Both together with more than twenty prisoners of conscience locked up in the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, El Chipote, spend their days in isolation and under precarious conditions.
The notorious squalor of prisoners of conscience has “been an intentional way on the part of the regime to expose them to physical deterioration and that should alarm us because it is showing that there is a violation of the human rights of political prisoners in Niaragua Valley said.
35 rapes Covenant International Civil and Political Rights
For his part, the international lawyer for the pre-candidates, Jared Genser explained the main violations that occurred during the seven hearings held behind closed doors at El Chipote.
In a detailed report, he indicated that the trial “It is creepy both by quantity and severity of the substantive and due process violations exhibited, and demonstrates how the regimen -Daniel- Ortega has taken total control of the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary to promote his autocratic interests,” it reads.
ANDhe Ortega regime committed 35 violations of the Covenant International Civil and Political Rights in justart, among these, presumption of innocence, denial of access to a lawyer, right to cross-examine witnesses against him and to obtain the presence and cross-examination of witnesses by the accused under the same conditions as witnesses against him, right to adequate time and means to prepare his defense and to communicate with a defense attorney of his choiceindicated.
In the report, Genser summarizes that the arresttrial, conviction and sentence against Maradiaga and Chamorro “is the culmination of a nightmare kafkiana of eight months, which began with illegal arrests, included 84 days of disappearanceon forced and has been characterized for torture, prolonged incommunicado detention, serious violations of due process, and arbitrary detention, all in fgross violation of their rights under Nicaraguan and international law.
For his part, Valle recalled that before any type of process towards the democratization of the country, it is important to release the more than 170 political prisoners in Nicaragua, who have been unjustly deprived of their liberty.
