An Argentine judge ordered the arrest of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, his wife Rosario Murillo and several aides for “ systematic violations of human rights », announced Monday, December 30, the lawyer behind the complaint.
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“ Federal Judge Ariel Lijo ordered the subpoena and international arrest warrant for Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “, Dario Richarte told AFP. The case is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute crimes against humanity regardless of where they were committed, he explained.
The government of Daniel Ortega and his wife “ is perhaps the bloodiest dictatorship that has ever existed on the continent », Estimated Dario Richarte. The crimes they are accused of include “ assassination, serious deprivation of liberty, forced disappearance of persons, torture, deportation or forced transfer of population and persecution of a group or community “.
A complaint filed in 2022
The complaint was filed in August 2022 by a group of professors from the University of Buenos Aires led by Dario Richarte. An arrest warrant was also issued against “ each of those responsible for the state structure, police, military and paramilitary, for crimes against humanity “, he added.
The complaint mentions a “ criminal plan of repression » and is based on testimonies from victims who remain anonymous. The legal action was expanded as the dictatorship committed new human rights violations “, indicated the lawyer.
This complaint is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a State to judge crimes against humanity regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator, the victim or the place where the crime was committed.
This principle, already applied by the Argentine courts in September to order the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, had notably enabled the arrest in London in 1998 of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet following an arrest warrant issued by a judge. Spanish, recalls our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Théo Conscience.
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In mid-December, the NGO Amnesty International estimated that “ no one is safe ” of “ repressive model » set up at Nicaragua by the government of President Ortega, which threatens human rights in a way “ unprecedented “.
Daniel Ortega accused of establishing an autocracy with his wife
Daniel Ortega, a 79-year-old former guerrilla who led Nicaragua in the 1980s after the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, is returned to power in 2007. He reformed the Constitution a dozen times, notably allowing him an indefinite number of mandates.
He is accused by the United States, the European Union and Latin American countries of having established an autocracy with his wife, who would become “ co-president » thanks to a constitutional reform adopted in November by Parliament.
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