Several opponents, including a sports journalist, were sentenced to heavy prison terms during one of the trials against the opposition to President Daniel Ortega.
Opponents are prosecuted on the basis of the law on the defense of people’s rights to independence and sovereignty, adopted in 2020, which considers people who threaten national integrity as “traitors to the fatherland”.
Since the start of the trials on February 1, 20 opponents were found guilty, 10 of whom were sentenced to between eight and 13 years in prison. Among them, Hugo Torres, ex-guerrilla and leader of the Sandinista dissident movement, died Saturday in detention, in hospital, at the age of 73. His death has increased the pressure on Daniel Ortega with criticism from the international community.
Among the latest people sentenced, sports journalist Miguel Mendoza. It was an independent NGO, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) that revealed the information. “The Judiciary sentences journalist Miguel Mendoza to nine years in prison and disqualification from public office for conspiring to undermine national integrity,” the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights tweeted.
“In recent years, Mendoza has shared his political opinions on the human rights situation and criticized the government” on social networks, where he had thousands of subscribers, the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights said last year. Protection of Journalists (CPJ) calling for his release.
Opponent Nidia Barbosa was also sentenced yesterday Wednesday to nine years in prison, while on Tuesday the president of the Union for Democratic Renewal (Unamos), the former Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS, center-left) , Suyen Barahona, was sentenced to eight years.
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Forty six opponents were arrested last year, most before the November election in which President Ortega (76) won a fourth consecutive term since returning to power in 2007. More than a hundred Opponents are also languishing in jail for participating in the spring 2018 protests that demanded the resignation of President Ortega. The crackdown left at least 355 dead, while more than 100,000 Nicaraguans went into exile, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).