Rolando Álvarez, in Managua (Nicaragua), on May 20, 2022. Jorge Torres (EFE)
One day after he refused to leave Nicaragua among the 222 political prisoners released by the Daniel Ortega regime and sent to Washington, Bishop Rolando Álvarez has received a harsh sentence from the judicial authorities of the Central American country.
The Nicaraguan justice system, controlled by Ortega, has sentenced him to more than 26 years in prison for a series of crimes that include "treason against the homeland", "undermining national integrity" and for "spreading false news".
The regime has been merciless against the religious, whom it has stripped of all his political rights and withdrawn his Nicaraguan nationality.
The sentence was read on Friday afternoon in the Managua courts by magistrate Octavio Rothschuh, president of Chamber One of the Court of Appeals.
According to the ruling, the Government accuses Álvarez of a series of crimes framed in the laws that the National Assembly approved in 2021 in order to create a framework to accuse and sentence those who have stood up to the Ortega regime.
These range from terrorism to treason and go through disobedience against the authorities.
Álvarez is the most critical voice within the Catholic Church in Nicaragua and has shown belligerence in his positions against the excesses of Ortega, who has declared him his main enemy and has placed him at the center of the persecution against religious.
Álvarez had suffered harassment and persecution by the Police and Ortega's hosts and bravely resisted the attacks directed against him from the Government.
The priest had denounced persecution and harassment, as well as threats, but he resisted from his parish, in the north of the country, until his arrest last summer.
The Police affirmed on that occasion that Álvarez, "taking advantage of his status as a religious leader, using the media and social networks" was trying to organize violent groups,
"inciting them to carry out acts of hate against the population... with the purpose of destabilizing the State of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities."
The authorities set up a prison house for the bishop.
On Thursday Daniel Ortega charged Álvarez, whom he accused of "arrogance" for refusing to leave Nicaragua along with the 222 political prisoners released by the regime and who were transferred to Washington on a plane chartered by the United States Government.
According to Church sources, the Police removed the bishop from the building where he was serving house arrest and was transferred to the La Modelo prison, on the outskirts of Managua.
"Let them be free, I pay their sentence," Bishop Álvarez said, according to Catholic sources, referring to the political prisoners who left Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan president directed his criticisms of the bishop during his chain appearance.
Ortega mocked that the religious, with his refusal to leave the country, has shown "arrogant behavior of someone who considers himself the head of the Nicaraguan Church, the leader of the Latin American Church."
The president has said that Álvarez “has been treated in an incredible way, like no other prisoner in this country.
I was in prison for seven years and I have never known in the history of a prisoner who was treated in that way, like this man," said the president.
Ortega confirmed that the bishop was transferred to La Modelo prison, in a repressive decision "for not complying with what the law mandates."
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