Regime accuses Dora María Tellez and Ana Margarita Vijil of “conspiracy” in secret hearing

The Ortega regime, through the Public Prosecutor's Office, continues the escalation of accusations against opponents. According to a press release from this entity, controlled by the Ortega regime, indictments were filed against the leaders Ana Margarita Vijil Gurdián and Dora María Téllez Argüello, belonging to the organization Unamos, which is the current name of what was previously known as the Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS).

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, “charges were filed for allegedly committing the crime of conspiracy to undermine national integrity, in accordance with articles 410 and 412 of the Penal Code, to the detriment of Nicaraguan society and the State of Nicaragua. The preliminary hearings were held today, the judicial authority admitted both accusations and decreed the precautionary measure of preventive detention for the accused”.

Secret hearing continue

The Public Prosecutor's Office continues to use what defense lawyers linked to these cases call “secret hearings”, in which they are not allowed to meet with their clients or have access to their files. 

The cases of Vijil Gurdián and Dora María Téllez are added to the accusations that the Public Prosecutor's Office has brought against former presidential aspiring candidate, Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, in the case of the money laundering investigation against the Violeta Barrios Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), which has been developed in a process plagued with irregularities.

Through the same case against Chamorro Barrios, the Prosecutor 's Office also accused her brothers Pedro Joaquín, and also Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios, director of CONFIDENCIAL. The regime accuses the latter of laundering assets, although he has no economic links with the FVBCH. The journalist rejected the accusations as an attempt to silence the independent press.

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This Thursday, August 26, the Public Prosecutor's Office also accused presidential aspiring candidates Félix Maradiaga, Juan Sebastián Chamorro and Arturo Cruz Sequeira of allegedly committing the crimes of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity”, according to a press release from the Public Prosecutor’s Office. 

The libel was accepted in a hearing held this Thursday, to which neither the unofficial press nor the defense of the accused had access and in which it was also decided to prosecute the following people for the same crimes: former vice-chancellor José Bernard Pallais, the former president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise, José Adán Aguerri; and the former leaders of the National Blue and White Union, Violeta Granera Padilla and Daisy Tamara Dávila Rivas, and also the political scientist Manuel Salvador Orozco Ramírez, director of the Center for Migration and Economic Stability in Washington, USA. 

The police based these arrests on the so-called Law for the Defense of the People’s Right to Independence, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination for Peace, commonly known as “Sovereignty Law”, which was urgently approved by the Sandinista-majority National Assembly last December. 

This controversial law, promoted by the Executive, classifies people as “traitors to the homeland” and disqualifies them from holding public office.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff