The Nicaraguan dictatorship has sent a Catholic bishop to jail for 26 years for treason after he refused to board a plane to take him into exile in the United States.
Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa was among 223 priests, seminarians and political activists to be offered sanctuary by Washington in a deal brokered with President Daniel Ortega.
The bishop refused to abandon the suffering Catholci people of his country and would not board the plane when he was driven to the runway from El Chipote, a notorious prison.
The hard Left Nicaraguan regime later announced that the bishop was a “traitor to the homeland” and that he had been jailed for 26 years and four months.
Bishop Álvarez had been detained without trial since August and was due to appear in court on Wednesday.
Judge Héctor Ernesto Ochoa Andino, president of Criminal Chamber 1 of the Managua Court of Appeals, said in a statement: “The defendant Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is held to be a traitor to the country.
“Let it be declared that Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is guilty for being the author of the crimes of undermining national security and sovereignty, spreading fake news news through information technology, obstructing an official in the performance of his duties, aggravated disobedience or contempt of authority, all committed concurrently and to the detriment of society and the State of the Republic of Nicaragua.”
Detailing each of the charges and their respective penalties, the text adds: “The defendant Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is sentenced to 15 years in prison and perpetual disqualification from exercising public office on behalf of or at the service of the State of Nicaragua.”
“The loss of the convicted person’s citizen rights is declared, which will be perpetual, all of this for being the author of the crime of undermining national security and sovereignty.” The ruling said, according to Catholic News Agency.
The sentence also decrees “the loss of Nicaraguan nationality to the sanctioned José Álvarez Lagos, in strict adherence to Law 1145.”
Law 1145, as well as a constitutional reform that allows the loss of nationality of those sentenced for “treason,” was passed by the National Assembly of Nicaragua last week.
Judge Ochoa said: “The defendant Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is sentenced to five years in prison and an 800-day monetary fine (based on a percentage of his daily salary) for being the author of propagating fake news through information and communication technologies.
“The penalty in days-of-fine is equivalent to the amount of 56,461 córdobas and 15 centavos (about $1,550).”
Finally, the bishop was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for being the author of aggravated obstruction of the performance of duty of an official to the detriment of the State and the Republic of Nicaragua” and also “one year in prison for being the author of the crime of contempt of authority”.
“The prison sentences will be served successively, so the convicted Rolando José Álvarez Lagos must serve 26 years and four months in prison,” the sentence read.
In the United States, Rep. Chris Smith, chair of the House Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives, said: “We must continue to work to combat the brutal Ortega regime and free the remaining prisoners — including courageous Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who refuses to abandon his flock.”
“He is truly a Christ-like figure with a servant’s heart, and we continue to urge Pope Francis to speak unequivocally on his behalf and seek his release,” the congressman said.