The Inter-American Court declares Nicaragua “in permanent contempt”

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) declared the State of Nicaragua in “permanent contempt” on Tuesday for failing to comply with court decisions regarding 46 opponents imprisoned for political reasons in the country.

The measure of the I/A Court HR is contained in a resolution of provisional measures issued in San José, Costa Rica, where it is based.

The inter-American organization reproaches “the effective non-observance” by Nicaragua of what was ordered, as detailed in its pronouncement, in the resolutions of June 24, September 9, November 4 and 22, 2021 and May 25 and October 4 of 2022.

This behavior contradicts “the international principle of complying with their conventional obligations in good faith and a breach of the duty to inform the Court,” which places them “in a situation of absolute vulnerability” and increases “the risk situation” of the detainees, he added. .

The Nicaraguan opposition and humanitarian organizations have estimated the number of “political prisoners” in Nicaragua at 219. Of these, 46 prisoners of conscience are defended by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which asked the Inter-American Court on November 9 to declare the country in “contempt” in a court session in which the government of Daniel Ortega was absent again.

Most of those 46 prisoners have been held in the police jail known as El Chipote in Managua for more than a year.

In its pronouncement on Tuesday, the Inter-American Court also instructed the president of the court to inform the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), in addition, about the “absolute lack of protection in which the beneficiaries of the provisional measures find themselves.”

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He urged the OAS Permanent Council to “follow up on the non-compliance with the provisional measures” by Nicaragua, according to the resolution that has already been notified to the State of Nicaragua, the IACHR, the representatives of the beneficiaries and the authorities of the OAS.

The November 9 session was attended by some relatives of imprisoned opponents, such as former presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro, journalist Miguel Mendoza, sociologist Irving Larios and human rights defender Evelyn Pinto, who expressed “concern” about his health and “his physical and psychological deterioration.”

According to Wendy Flores, a lawyer with the Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Committee, at least 38 of the 50 prisoners in El Chipote have aggravated illnesses due to incarceration. Most of those detained were convicted of “terrorism” and “conspiracy” in “arbitrary” trials where the police themselves were used as “witnesses”, she added.

Nicaragua is experiencing a serious political crisis that erupted with a series of social protests in April 2018. The revolt was put down by police and Sandinista paramilitaries with a toll of 355 dead, more than 2,000 injured, 1,600 detained and at least 100,000 exiled, in its majority refugees in neighboring Costa Rica.

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