TODAY NICARAGUA – The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo backed down and decided not to execute the order of the Ortega judge Karen Chavarría Morales, head of the Ninth Criminal District Court of Managua, who instructed the police of the dictatorship to detain the opposition and independent presidential candidate, Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, and keep her under the precautionary measure of house arrest.
The Ortega court ordered this Wednesday, June 2, to search the home of Chamorro Barrios, while the judiciary issued a statement in which it assures that the Fifth District Court of Criminal Hearings gives rise to the precautionary measures, requested by the Prosecutor’s Office and it also disqualifies her from holding public office.
“Citizen Cristiana María Chamorro Barrios is disqualified from holding institutional and public positions, for not being in full enjoyment of her civil and political rights, for being in an Investigative Criminal Process,” the statement said.
“Cristiana finds herself under house arrest, they took what they could, they didn’t beat them, we don’t know why they took more than five hours, they searched everything, they wanted to bother, but she, her daughter and the staff are fine, there were no altercations,” a source close to the family, who requested anonymity, told LA PRENSA.
The director of Confidencial.com.ni, and Cristiana’s brother, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, through Twitter confirmed her house arrest.
“After more than five hours of police raids on the home of my sister Cristiana Chamorro, a presidential candidate, at 5:15 pm, the riot police have her under ‘house arrest’, in isolation. Her house is still occupied by the Police,” he reported.
Also, a member of the Chamorro press team, Arelia Barba, assured that “a source said that they did give her house arrest and that Cristiana was accompanied by her daughter. They took their cell phones, they took the internet from their home, they took their computers and left them incommunicado”.
Police attacks
The arrest warrant was requested by the Public Ministry of the regime in the indictment filed this June 1 in the Managua’s courts, where, according to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office, it also requested “the complex processing of the case and the precautionary measure of preventive detention for the accused”.
In addition, the police raided Chamorro’s home for at least five hours. The officers forcibly entered the house of the opposition woman at around noon and prepared to attack relatives of the presidential candidate who were outside the house, also relatives of political prisoners, members of the Organización Víctimas de Abril, and journalists covering the event.
“They are cowards, that’s what they are, but soon there will be justice because this country belongs to Nicaraguans,” shouted Rodrigo Navarrete, uncle of political prisoner Jaime Navarrete.
Rodrigo was kicked and shoved by officials of the regime.
Also, anti-riot police tried to snatch the camera from La Prensa’s photojournalist, Jader Flores, who had to run to avoid being hit by the uniformed men.
Guarded by regime police
Inside the house there were also police officers with weapons and outside it was surrounded by police and para-police.
Chamorro’s relatives arrived outside the house, but the police did not let them enter. Chamorro’s sister-in-law, Verónica Lacayo, outside the house, assured that Cristiana was inside the house with her daughter.
LA PRENSA called the opposition’s team of lawyers to find out details of the defense in favor of Chamorro, but they did not answer the calls, while the regime’s Prosecutor’s Office also requested precautionary measures such as a prohibition of attending certain meetings and places, and prohibition to communicate with people linked to the events investigated.
“These same measures were requested against Mrs. Cristiana María Chamorro Barrios, plus her disqualification from public office,” the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
For noon yesterday, Chamorro had a press conference scheduled where she would speak about the accusation against her, but due to the raid by the Orteguista Police, she had to cancel it.
The Ortega Murillo regime has also ordered the freezing of Chamorro’s bank accounts and others.
Article originally appeared on Today Nicaragua and is republished here with permission.
