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PoliticsNicaragua

Nicaragua: Opposition leader Chamorro sentenced to 8 years

March 22, 2022

Cristiana Chamorro has been under house arrest since June last year accused of laundering money. She was considered a favorite of the presidential election last year.

https://p.dw.com/p/48ooO
Cristiana Chamorro, former director of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy, arrives at the Public Ministry, Nicaragua, May 21, 2021
A presidential hopeful last year, Cristiana Chamorro was barred from contesting after being accused of crimes Image: Esteban Felix/AP Photo/picture alliance

Nicaraguan opposition figure Cristiana Chamorro was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of financial crimes, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). 

Chamorro, 68, had been detained in June last year and placed under house arrest.

She was accused by Daniel Ortega's government of laundering money through her media organization.

She was also one of the first to be detained in a wave of detentions that followed last year in the build-up to the presidential election.

Chamorro, the daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was considered a favorite in the presidential contest last year.

What else do we know?

Chamorro will continue to remain under house arrest, according to CENIDH.

She and others were slapped with "million-dollar fines" that are "impossible to pay, and if they are commuted, it would be the equivalent of life imprisonment," according to the human rights foundation.

Chamorro's brother, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, her driver, and two employees of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, were convicted by a court last week too.

Pedro Joaquin Chamorro was sentenced to nine years in prison.

rm/jsi (AFP, Reuters)