Following the arrest of another presidential candidate, the UN urged the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua to release all political prisoners

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for Central America and the Dominican Republic (OACNUDH) urged the Nicaraguan government on Monday to “Free all those arbitrarily detained” in the country, after the arrest of the fifth opposition candidate for the presidency.

“A 90-day imprisonment, without effective judicial review and without being able to count on trusted lawyers during the hearing violates“Human rights”, indicated the specialized agency of the United Nations system based in Panama City.

OHCHR made this statement “before the arrest of the 5th presidential candidate“In Nicaragua, in reference to the journalist and Nicaraguan opponent Miguel Mora.

“It is urgent that all those detained be allowed to contact their families. Finally, the Government must guarantee the medical care they need and investigate without delay. allegations of ill-treatment committed during the arrests, ”said OHCHR.

Mora was arrested last night and became the fifth opposition presidential candidate to be jailed. less than five months before the elections in which President Daniel Ortega, in power since 2007, is seeking re-election.

Owner and former director of the television channel 100% News, closed by the Government within the framework of the crisis socio-political living in the country since April 2018, Mora launched his candidacy on March 6, and he was previously imprisoned between December 2018 and June 2019 accused of “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts”, among others.

The first detainee, on June 2, was also the journalist Cristiana Chamorro, 67, opposition figure most likely to win presidential elections. She is accused of the crimes of mismanagement and ideological lying, both in real competition with the laundering of money, property and assets.

The second was Arturo Cruz, former ambassador to the United States between 2007 and 2009, and the first to be indicted under the “Law for the Defense of the Rights of Peoples to Independence, Sovereignty and Self-Determination for Peace”, approved urgently on Last December 21 during an extraordinary session.

This controversial law deactivates the candidacies of those Nicaraguans who applaud the imposition of sanctions against the state and its citizens, and considers them as “”traitors to the homeland”.

This rule also applies to the other two applicants. Opponents for the presidency arrested: the academic Félix Maradiaga and the economist Juan Sebastián Chamorro.

The presidential candidates were arrested amid a wave of arrests that included two former deputy foreign ministers, two former Sandinista dissident guerrillas, a former business leader, a banker, four activists and two former collaborators of NGO.

With information from EFE

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