A Nicaraguan court on June 9 announced the “freezing and forfeiture” of all real estate and of all shares of commercial companies belonging to the 222 political prisoners who were deported to the U.S. in February.
The ruling by Criminal Chamber 1 of the Court of Appeals based in Managua, dated May 19, points out that the former prisoners were declared “traitors to the homeland” and therefore exiled from the country and stripped of their citizenship.
“This theft is another serious violation of fundamental human rights, since private property is a constitutional right and a basic legal guarantee recorded in multiple inter-national agreements signed by Nicaragua,” said former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga in a message shared with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “It’s a very serious action against the 222 political prisoners in addition to the action that had been previously taken against another 94 people on another list, including my wife, Berta Valle,” he added.
According to Maradiaga, this latest court decision adds “to the list of humiliations that the dictatorship has committed against this group of Nicaraguans, who have also suffered imprisonment, torture, public defamation campaigns, family separation, and the violation of their constitutional rights.”
He also warned that “this theft irreparably harms the entire Nicaraguan legal establishment in matters of private property.”