Manager La Prensa found guilty of money laundering in Nicaragua

Managua, 24 Mar A Nicaraguan judge convicted the general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, guilty of the crime of money laundering, in a trial that the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) called Thursday a “judicial farce.” Judge Nidia Camila Tardencilla Rodríguez issued a conviction against Holmann Chamorro, in a trial that ended last night, after two days of hearings in the prison known as “El Chipote”, and in which the businessman pleaded not guilty, reported La Prensa, Nicaragua's oldest newspaper, which now only circulates in digital format . The Prosecutor's Office requested nine years and four months in prison, plus a fine whose amount is unknown, according to La Prensa. Holmann Chamorro is part of a group of more than 40 Nicaraguans, including opposition leaders, critics of President Daniel Ortega, and independent professionals, who were captured before last November's elections, in which the Sandinista was re-elected to his fifth term, fourth in a row and second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with seven of the candidates in prison. The general manager of La Prensa became the fourth member of the Chamorro family to be condemned by the Nicaraguan justice system, which previously did the same with brothers Cristiana and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Barrios, sons of former President Barrios de Chamorro, as well as Juan Sebastián Chamorro García, who, like his cousin Cristiana, had been arrested after announcing his interest in being a candidate for the presidency by the opposition. “If I am going to receive a punishment for bearing the Chamorro surname, I am willing to comply with it,” said Holmann Chamorro during the trial, according to La Prensa. The businessman's words allude to “the regime's hatred against the Chamorro family. Ortega does not surpass that Doña Violeta defeated him cleanly in 1990,” Cenidh said in a public statement. Holmann Chamorro, 55, has lost 24 pounds of weight, has a bulge in his abdomen, pain in his groin, fungus in his hands and feet, heart problems, blood pressure, possible prostate problems, and a spot on his right eye, apparently because of the unsanitary conditions and lack of ventilation and lighting in his cell, according to reported by Cenidh and La Prensa, whose premises are still occupied by the National Police. The businessman's conditions, according to Cenidh, are similar to those of the rest of those captured in the context of the elections, including former diplomats, former Sandinista historic guerrillas, opposition leaders, youth leaders, peasants, journalists, and businessmen. Ortega has branded imprisoned and tried opponents as “traitors to the homeland,” “criminals,” and “sons of bitches of the Yankee imperialists.” Since the start of the 2018 social protests against the Ortega government, an estimated 120 journalists have emigrated, mainly to Costa Rica, the United States and Spain, according to data from the Nicaragua Never More Human Rights Collective. CHIEF wpr/av/cpy