Leader of Nicaragua's opposition sentenced to 8 years in prison

By Al Mayadeen net
Source: Agencies
22 Mar 2022 12:57

Christiana Chamorro will remain under house arrest after she was detained in June.

Christiana Chamorro during a press conference in 2021 (AFP)

Six months before the presidential elections in Nicaragua, opposition figure Cristiana Chamorro was arrested and blocked from running.

On Monday, the 68-year-old journalist was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Chamorro has been under house arrest since June, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). Thirty-one years ago, her mother attempted to unseat the Nicaraguan President in 1990.

In November, the US denounced Nicaraguan presidential elections as a "sham” and accused Nicaragua's government of imprisoning nearly 40 opposition figures, including potential presidential candidates.

Her mother defeated Ortega to become the Americas' first elected female head of state, while her father Pedro, a writer and outspoken opponent of Anastasio Somoza in the 1960s and 1970s, was slain on a Managua street in 1978. Chamorro's brother, Pedro Joaquin, was sentenced to nine years in prison in the same case on Monday.

Pedro Joaquin, a former presidential candidate, said, "like parent like daughter. That is the first thing that comes to mind for any Nicaraguan because of Cristiana's inheritance of struggle from her parents."

Prosecutors charged Chamorro with a variety of offenses last year, and she was prevented from running in the election since she was facing criminal charges. Following that, a Managua judge ordered her arrest on charges of "abusive management, ideological dishonesty," and "the laundering of money, property, and assets to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and society."

Prosecutors said accounting "inconsistencies" stemmed from Chamorro's work as the director of a press freedom nonprofit named after her mother.

Chamorro left the foundation in February of last year, refusing to comply with new legislation that requires anybody receiving money from overseas to register with the government as a "foreign agent."

In an interview for AFP before her arrest in June, Chamorro accused Ortega of preventing her from running for the election by setting up a whole "farce" for money laundering. Her charges include promoting "ideological falsehood" and destabilizing the government.

Chamorro was one of 39 opposition figures arrested, mostly on charges of attacking "national integrity".