In Nicaragua, a journalist and opponent sentenced for “undermining national integrity”

Condemnations of opponents continue in Nicaragua. The journalist and former aspirant to the presidency of this Central American country, Miguel Mora, was found guilty on Friday February 4 of “undermining national integrity”, after a trial behind closed doors, according to his lawyer.

Mr. Mora’s trial was held in a prison in Managua, El Chipote, where most of the 46 opponents arrested last year are held, before the presidential election won in November 2021 by Daniel Ortega for the fourth time. consecutive.

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The prosecutor has requested against Mr. Mora fifteen years in prison, said his lawyer, Gerardo Gonzalez. The 53-year-old man was the director of the private channel 100% Noticias, very active in denouncing the repression of anti-government protests in 2018, and which had been seized by the State the same year. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at least 355 people were killed in 2018 in the country during the crackdown.

His candidacy for the presidency canceled in 2021

He had expressed his intention to be a candidate for the presidency of Nicaragua last year for the Party of Democratic Restoration, one of the three main opposition parties, in the elections of November 7, but his candidacy was canceled by the electoral court . “He has not committed any crime and I continue to hope for his release”said his wife, journalist Veronica Chavez, after the trial.

This is the sixth conviction pronounced since the beginning of the trials against the opponents detained in Nicaragua, on 1er February. For the moment, no sentence has been made public. Already on Thursday, two opposition figures to President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla and a student leader, had been found guilty of “conspiracy”, according to a human rights organization.

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The World with AFP

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