Nicaraguan regime convicts two political prisoners of "conspiracy”

The Nicaraguan justice system found two opponents of the regime guilty of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and spreading false news, reported the country’s Legal Defense Unit.

"The Ortega Murillo regime in a single hearing has found political prisoners Yader Parajón and Yaser Muhamar guilty," the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) posted on Twitter. 

The Attorney General's Office has not provided details of the verdict or sentence.

Parajón is an activist of the opposition National Blue and White Unity (UNAB). He was arrested last September while trying to leave the country and was found guilty of "conspiracy to commit undermining national integrity."

Parajón was one of the activists who participated in the protests that erupted in 2018 against the Ortega-Murillo regime.

Yaser Muhamar Vado, a dissident of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), was also found guilty of conspiracy. He was arrested on November 6, one day before the presidential elections in which Ortega won his fourth consecutive term.

"The Cenidh condemns, rejects, and denounces before international organizations, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the deepening repression," the organization said.

Around 46 opponents, including seven former presidential contenders, were arrested between May and December last year on charges of threatening the country's integrity.

The Prosecutor's Office described the detainees as "criminals and delinquents" who have "attempted against the rights of the Nicaraguan people and society, compromising peace and security."

The defendants "are the same ones who promoted and directed the terrorist acts of aggression of the failed coup attempt of 2018,” the entity said in a statement.