Four collaborators of the Nicaraguan newspaper
La Prensa
- including two drivers imprisoned since July 6 - were indicted last week in Nicaragua for
"conspiracy",
announced Tuesday the daily which publishes its articles on the internet from its exile in Costa Rica.
In addition to the two drivers,
"arrested without any reason"
, an arrest warrant was issued against a journalist and an administrative employee of the newspaper, exiled, indicates the editor of
La Prensa
Eduardo Enriquez, without revealing the identity of the four people.
"Criminalization of journalistic work"
The indictment was pronounced on September 29 before a criminal court in Managua, specifies Eduardo Enriquez who denounces
“a criminalization of independent journalistic work”.
The newspaper
La Prensa
, the oldest in the country founded 95 years ago, transferred all its staff to neighboring Costa Rica last July after the arrest of two of its drivers and searches at the homes of several of its journalists, photographers and employees.
The premises of the opposition daily had been taken over by the police on August 13, 2021 under cover of an investigation for fraud and money laundering against its leaders.
The manager of
La Prensa
, Juan Lorenzo Holmann, has been detained since last year and was sentenced in April to nine years in prison for money laundering.
The newspaper's headquarters in Managua will be transformed into
a "cultural center"
, the authorities announced in August.
"The theft (of the newspaper's headquarters) is consummated"
, denounced the officials of La Prensa.
More than 200 opponents are currently detained in Nicaragua, including seven who aspired to the candidacy for the presidential election of November 2021 won, in the absence of any serious opponent, by outgoing President Daniel Ortega.
Re-elected for a fourth consecutive term, he accuses his opponents of conspiring to overthrow him with the support of Washington.
In 2018, protests demanding his resignation were bloodily crushed.
The unrest left at least 355 people dead, according to human rights organizations.
The government reports 22 police officers killed.