Nicaragua moves 3 opposition members from jail to house arrest 

Nicaragua moved three opposition members with health problems from jail to house arrest on Friday, after another opposition leader died in jail on February 14. 

The Nicaraguan regime ordered former Foreign Affairs Minister Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, 77, former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Pallais, 68, and former ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Cruz Sequeira, 68, to be placed under house arrest on Friday. 

The three men were charged with conspiring to destabilize the country. They were arrested in a wave of detentions of opposition members by the Ortega Regime last year ahead of the presidential elections.

The Nicaraguan government said they were moving the three men to house arrest due to their poor health and humanitarian reasons. 

The decision comes a week after retired General and former guerilla leader Hugo Torres died as a political prisoner in Managua. Torres had helped overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in 1974 but was arrested last year along with 46 other opposition members. 

Following Torres’ death, international organizations criticized the Nicaraguan regime for its treatment of political prisoners. 

Aguirre Sacasa, Pallais, and Cruz Sequeira are among several political prisoners who are over the age of 65.