Adopted unanimously on Tuesday, September 3, a law voted by the Nicaraguan Parliament will allow opponents of the regime of President Daniel Ortega living outside the country’s borders to be tried, whether they are nationals or foreigners.
This reform of the penal code provides for penalties of up to thirty years in prison, with possible confiscation of assets, for those who encourage sanctions against the government of Managua. The text, which will come into force upon its publication in Official Journalestablishes that companies and NGOs can also be sanctioned.
The law aims “to strengthen the work of our country’s institutions responsible for combating transnational organized crime”said pro-government MP Maria Auxiliadora Martinez during the parliamentary session.
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For the opposition, mainly exiled in Costa Rica, the United States and Spain, it aims to provide a legal framework for the practices “repressive” of President Ortega. “It allows the regime to prosecute anyone, whether or not they are in Nicaragua, and without the need for them to be present at the trial, thus consolidating a legal framework that supports these repressive practices.”former presidential candidate Felix Maradiaga, who is exiled in the United States, told Agence France-Presse. According to him, Mr. Ortega intends to “silencing opposition everywhere in the world”.
UN warning
The law was passed on the day the UN warned of the « grave » deterioration of human rights in the country since last year, with an increase in arbitrary detentions and persecution of those “perceived as dissidents” by the government.
After accusing them of ” treason “the Nicaraguan government last year released more than 300 critical politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists, expelled them and stripped them of their nationality and property.
Daniel Ortega, 78, who ruled in the 1980s after the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, returned to power in 2007 and was re-elected in elections unrecognized by Washington, the European Union and international bodies. The former guerrilla leader is accused of establishing an authoritarian regime in the Central American country of seven million people.
In 2018, three months of protests against his regime were harshly repressed, leaving more than 300 dead, hundreds detained, and forcing thousands of others into exile, according to the UN.
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