Former Sandinista rebel commander Dora Maria Tellez, one of dozens of political detainees rounded up last year by the Nicaraguan government, was convicted after a trial lasting only a few hours, a lawyers group said on Thursday.
The Judicial Defense Unit, a coalition of lawyers, said that the trial was held in the infamous Chipote prison, where 39 of the political opponents of her one-time ally, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, have been held for months.
The lawyers said that Judge Angel Fernandez declared Tellez guilty of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and recommended she be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Photo: Reuters
Tellez, 65, led an assault on the National Palace in Managua in 1978, holding Nicaraguan Congress members hostage in exchange for the release of rebel prisoners.
Following then-Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza’s overthrow the next year, Tellez served as Nicaraguan minister of health in the first Sandinista government, which was led by Ortega from 1979 to 1990.
She later split with Ortega and became a leader of the opposition Sandinista Renovation Movement. The former leader of that movement, Ana Margarita Vijil, was found guilty of the same charge in a similar trial on Wednesday.
Also convicted on Thursday was former student protest leader Lesther Aleman.
The Nicaraguan University Alliance, Aleman’s group, said that his trial lasted a total of six hours.
Vilma Nunez, a lawyer who leads the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, before the trials said that the hearings would be only for show, with the outcomes already concluded.
“This looks like it will be preordained convictions of innocent people,” Nunez said. “Nobody should be confused. These are not trials, these are repressive farces that the regime uses to issue convictions and continue to intimidate the people.”
Nunez spoke on Monday, after prosecutors announced that they were starting trials for 46 political figures arrested between May and June last year, in the run-up to Nicaragua’s Nov. 7 presidential election.
They include seven people who had been considered potential candidates to challenge Ortega, who ran essentially unopposed and won a fourth term in the November vote, which was widely criticized as a farce.
It was called illegitimate by the US, EU and the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly.
Relatives have said that the 39 prisoners kept in prison since being arrested have been subjected to isolation, constant interrogations and insufficient food.
The seven others are under a form of house arrest.
US Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Brian Nichols said in US congressional testimony on Thursday that Ortega’s abuse of Nicaragua’s justice system to imprison opponents in “horrific conditions” without adequate food and harsh sentences would have consequences ranging from US sanctions to its possible expulsion from the OAS.
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