The unusual “proofs” with which the regime of Daniel Ortega keeps its opponents in prison

Ten tweets and a Facebook post This is the evidence that the Nicaraguan public prosecutor presented to accuse sports writer Miguel Mendoza of the crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity”. All the witnesses are police officers.

One of the tweets from Mendoza presented by the prosecutor’s office was the one posted on June 2 of this year. “Republican MP María Elvira Salazar speaks out on the search and arrest of Cristina Chamorro and warns dictator Ortega that they are watching his actions and that the Renacer law is on the table.”

For Maynor Curtis, Mendoza’s lawyer, the evidence presented against his client has nothing to do with the crime he is accused of. The crime of “undermining national integrity”, he said, applies “to people who want to divide Nicaragua, the national territory “ who “attempt to induce another state to submit to the state of Nicaragua or to seize part of the national territory”.

Mendoza is one of 36 Nicaraguan opponents that Daniel Ortega’s regime imprisoned in a wave of arrests that began on May 28. Seven of the detainees have been cited as the main figures that the opposition intends to present to face Daniel Ortega in the presidential elections next November. Most of these opponents were arrested for “Betrayal to the Fatherland”, according to law 10-55, but now she is accused by “Undermine national integrity”, in accordance with article 410 of the Criminal Code.

This change, Curtis explains, is due to the intention of the prosecution cover “an error with or another error”. Law 10-55, he said, is not a criminal law, it does not provide for prison terms, and therefore they erred in detaining people under this law. Inmates treated They were isolated in police prisons for 80 to 100 days.

“By using the attack on national integrity, they are making another mistake because there is no evidence that anyone is trying to separate the territory from Nicaragua. They apply this to hide the error that was made during the application of Law 10-55, ”explains the lawyer.

The accusation against eight opponents presented by the Nicaraguan public prosecutor on August 25 before the court.

Curtis defends five of the jailed opponents: sports writer Miguel Mendoza, former Sandinista guerrillas Víctor Hugo Tinoco and Hugo Torres, presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, arrested shortly after having declared in an interview with Univisión his desire to become the presidential candidate of his party, Ciudadanos por la Libertad (CxL).

The Departmental Prosecutor’s Office of Managua presented on August 25 before the Fifth Criminal Court of Managua a charge against eight of the defendants whose evidence is mainly tweets, WhatsApp messages, YouTube videos, media interviews, arrest warrants, occupation receipts, search warrants and the testimony of the police officers who carried out the arrests, searches and what the prosecution calls the “cyber patrol”, which is the search for evidence on networks social.

“Cybernetic patrols were carried out in the various information and communication technologies of the various platforms of social networks and open sources, we proceeded to the analysis of the elements of interest”, specifies the prosecution.

“A crime cannot be proven with an arrest warrant or a search validation,” says attorney Curtis. “In the case of Miguel Mendoza, the witnesses are all police officers. Seven witnesses, seven police officers. Then the messages they extracted from social networks”.

Opposing Félix Maradiaga, presidential candidate for Blue and White Unit (UNAB), The prosecution accuses him of having granted an interview to the newspaper on January 26, 2020 Press which was published under the title “Sanctions against the institutions and against the portfolio of Ortega”.

Another opponent of the same organization, Violeta Granera, reportedly said in an interview with the digital platform Article 66 that “From the National Coalition, we ask the OAS to set a date for Ortega”, while against the candidate Arturo Cruz they present as proof that on March 25, 2021 he commented on social media that “the electoral reforms we need to have free and fair elections cannot continue to wait for the will of the sovereign”.

Another public comment presented as evidence is that expressed by the presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro who “on March 5, 2020, in publications of the newspaper La Prensa, declared that” the sanctions against the national police are one of the most severe and most energetic. to date, he has set a precedent that had not been registered in a state institution, denounced for ordering, directing, participating in human rights violations. “

The doctor of political science, Manuel Orozco, residing abroad, is singled out in the accusation of create “a WhatsApp group called ‘Reunión mayo 3′”, hence the other members “He asked that we send them the written proposals on electoral reforms in Nicaragua.

The prosecution also indicates that in the computer of the opponent José Pallais they found a document entitled: “The OAS resolution and the electoral context in Nicaragua” where “he details the non-compliance with the OAS recommendations”. It is also noted that Pallais, “in an effort to affect the nature of the sovereign and independent state, broke down 9 issues of alleged abuses by the state of Nicaragua against the opposition”, in a letter from the secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro.

Another group of tests concerns meetings that Nicaraguan opponents have held with various American officials. On August 11, 2020, for example, several of the defendants met with Michael Kozak, US Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, where, according to the indictment, “he called on them to advance a robust and solid unity allows the departure of the regime of Daniel Ortega by civic means ”.

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