Human rights defender Evelyn Pinto, 63, was sentenced to eight years in prison and banned from holding charges in Nicaragua, after being convicted of crimes considered treason and spreading false news, the dissident Legal Defense Unit (UDJ) reported Monday.
“Judge Irma Oralia Laguna Cruz sentences political prisoner Evelyn Pinto Centeno to 8 years in prison, plus 500 days fine and disqualification from holding charges,” the UDJ said in a statement.
Pinto is a veteran defender of the rights of children and adolescents since her work in the Fe y Alegría organization, as well as women and indigenous peoples.
Laguna Cruz sentenced Pinto to five years in prison for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and three for “spreading fake news.”
“This sentence is an affront to justice in Nicaragua. (Pinto) is innocent,” said the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), in a public statement.
The human rights defender was captured on November 6, on the eve of the elections in which dictator Daniel Ortega was re-elected to his fifth term, fourth in a row, and second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice-president, with his main contenders in prison.
According to her relatives, Pinto is a cancer survivor and suffers from hypertension and chronic kidney failure, so she needs specialized medical care.
The activist is one of more than 40 people who were captured in the framework of the 2021 elections, including dissidents who wanted to compete for the presidency, former Sandinista historical guerrillas, former diplomats, opposition leaders, critics of Ortega, and independent professionals.
Those captured in the electoral context have been accused of economic crimes and treason of the homeland. All those who have gone to trial have pleaded not guilty, but the judges have found them guilty.
Cenidh has insisted that the defendants are “political prisoners” who have been illegally captured, have not received due process, and have been victims of alleged violations of their rights, ill-treatment, and torture.
Ortega has branded imprisoned and tried opponents as “traitors to the homeland,” “criminals,” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists.”
(With information from EFE)
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