The digital activist and founder of the Free Minds organization, Yoel Sandino Ibarra, is serving this Friday, August 5, nine months in the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo, in Tipitapa.
The opponent of the Nicaraguan dictatorship was arrested on November 5 of last year, on the eve of the presidential elections where the dictatorial couple, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, were re-elected for five more years with all the opposition candidates after the bars.
The 26-year-old was brought to trial on November 25, 2021, in a “lightning” hearing. Daniel Ortega’s justice found him guilty for allegedly “conspiring against national integrity and spreading false news”, through his platform Free minds. From its social pages, it openly supported the presidential candidacy of the political prisoner Cristiana Chamorro Barrios.
Related news: Justice of Ortega sentences the opposition Yoel Sandino to 11 years in prison
The digital activist was tried under the Special Cybercrime Law, Law 1042; and the Law for the Defense of the Rights of the People to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-determination for Peace, Law 1055. The same law that Ortega used against more than 40 opponents who were imprisoned from May to November 2021 and with which he expanded the list of political prisoners to more than 190, according to the count of various opposition organizations.
Yoel Sandino is part of the list of 23 political prisoners under 25, whom Daniel Ortega’s regime deprived of his liberty for exercising his right to protest. On March 17 of this year he was sentenced to 11 years in prison plus a fine of 42,000 cordobas.
Relatives of the activist have insisted for several months that the political prisoner requires specialized medical attention to treat a neurological problem. The judicial authorities continue to ignore the request, his relatives denounced to the investigation team. Article 66.
During a family visit they were able to verify that Yoel Sandino has severe headaches, double vision and dizziness due to his health effects. The young man suffers from a congenital cyst in his head, for which he must be constantly checked every six months and since his arrest he has not been seen by a neurologist. The political prisoner had an appointment scheduled with the specialist for December 10, 2021, however, the police officers denied the request.
On May 9, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in favor of the digital activist and political prisoner Yoel Sandino Ibarra, after considering that he is facing a “serious and urgent situation” in the National Penitentiary System.
The agency said that the opponent since his illegal detention on November 5, 2021 has not received timely medical attention to treat his health effects. In addition, “the State provided information that does not make it possible to determine that the alleged risk factors have been duly mitigated.”
