A Nicaraguan judge on Monday sentenced four Roman Catholic priests to 10 years behind bars in what critics say is part of President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on dissent.
The priests were convicted in closed-door trials in which government-appointed defenders acted as lawyers for the priests. The conspiracy charges against him stem from longstanding government allegations that the church supported illegal pro-democracy protests.
A sign featuring Bishop Rolando Álvarez and Pope Francis hangs inside the Cathedral in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on August 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Inti Ocon, File)
The priests had worked with the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, and one had been rector of the private Juan Pablo II University in the capital of Managua.
Álvarez is under house arrest on charges of conspiracy and “harm to the Nicaraguan government and society,” and will soon be sentenced.
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Two seminarians and a cameraman working for the diocese were also sentenced Monday. The six defendants were arrested last year and all were stripped of the right to hold political office.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights described the sentences as “a legal aberration.”
“This is an insult to the law, an insult to people’s intelligence, an insult to the international community and international human rights protection agencies,” the center said in a statement on Tuesday.
Álvarez, the bishop, had been a key religious voice in discussions about the future of Nicaragua since 2018, when a wave of protests against the Ortega government led to a broad crackdown on opponents.
FILE: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega delivers a speech during a ceremony to commemorate the 199th anniversary of Independence Day, in Managua, Nicaragua, September 15, 2020. (Presidency of Nicaragua/César Pérez/Handout via Reuters)
The government arrested dozens of opposition leaders in 2021, including seven potential presidential candidates. They were sentenced to prison last year in speedy trials that were also closed to the public.
Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, has maintained that the pro-democracy protests were carried out with foreign backing and the support of the Catholic Church.
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Last year, he expelled nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity religious order and the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s top diplomat in Nicaragua.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
