Priests jailed in Nicaragua
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Nicaraguan court has sentenced four Roman Catholic priests to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges stemming from long-standing government allegations that the church backed illegal pro-democracy protests.
A human rights group in the Central American country quickly denounced the sentences handed down Monday and made known by lawyers of the Legal Defense Unit.
It was the latest chapter in a crackdown on the church by President Daniel Ortega.
The priests were convicted in closed-door trials in which government-appointed defenders acted as the priests’ attorneys.
The priests had worked with Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Alvarez, and one had been rector of the privately run Juan Pablo II University in the capital of Managua.
Alvarez is under house arrest on charges of conspiracy and “damaging the Nicaraguan government and society,” and is set to be sentenced soon.
Two seminary students and a cameraman who worked for the diocese were also sentenced Monday. All six of the defendants were arrested last year, and all were stripped of the right to ever hold political office.
The Nicaraguan Human Rights Centre 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 the international agencies for the protection of human rights,” the centre said in a statement Tuesday.
Alvarez, the bishop, had been a key voice in discussions of Nicaragua’s future since 2018, when a wave of protests against Ortega’s government led to a sweeping crackdown. The government arrested dozens of opposition leaders in 2021, including seven potential presidential candidates. They were sentenced to prison last year in quick trials that also were closed to the public.
Ortega contended the pro-democracy protests were carried out with foreign backing and the support of the Catholic Church.
Last year, he expelled a group of nuns and the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s top diplomat in Nicaragua.
Last August, Pope Francis told thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square he was closely following with “worry and sorrow” events in Nicaragua.