Elderly political prisoners: torture and deteriorating health
In Divergentes, Nov 30, 2021
In spite of the fact that several political prisoners are elderly the Ortega Murillo regime continues hostile treatment and torture toward them. Even though age does not exempt one from penal responsibilities, the Constitution and the law in Nicaragua establish alternative standards or measures so that the elderly and infirm might face judicial processes. Nevertheless, they are mired in El Chipote.
The government has also shown exceptional vindictiveness in not allowing these prisoners final visits with close relatives on their deathbed, nor allowed them to attend their funerals.
The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo keeps in jail nearly 20 elderly people, several of them infirm, subjected to torture. Even though being over 60 years old does not free one from penal responsibility, in these cases what judges do is lessen the sentences, ordering house arrest or providing alternative measures to preventive imprisonment.
Wendy Flores, lawyer and human rights defender, thinks that, even when a guilty sentence exists, elderly adults can apply for an extraordinary regime of house arrest after a medical evaluation, which is established in the regulations for penitentiary regimes.
Nevertheless, with the elderly political prisoners or those with multiple infirmities the first measure which the regime has applied has been imprisonment. “The fact that they have been elderly or infirm has not been enough to change the hostile, cruel behavior, and torture that the judicial system has had toward them,” added Flores, from the organization Nicaragua Nunca Mas [Nicaragua Never More].
Article 176 of the Penal Processing Code in subsection 3 indicates that “the judge can grant house arrest instead of imprisonment, among other cases, for people who are valetudinarians or affected by a duly proven terminal illness.” Valetudinarians are those who are over 70 years of age and suffer from health problems: diseases, delicate states of health and chronic diseases.
Elderly political prisoners in jail
Nevertheless, this has not been applied in several cases of political prisoners that the regime has jailed since the end of May. For example, one of those most recently arrested was the former ambassador and political analyst, Edgard Parrales 79 years old, who 10 years ago had an operation on his large intestine, which is why he needs to have a balanced diet in order to not go into a relapse, according to his relatives. In addition, in recent months he has undergone treatment to achieve a balance in some exam results that were abnormal. Parrales also suffers from a hernia in the stomach which has not been able to be corrected by surgery.
Another case is that of the former ambassador and politician, Mauricio Diaz, 71 years of age. His family denounced that in the clinic of the Judicial Auxiliary building, where they have him jailed, they diagnosed polyneuritis and scoliosis, two diseases that he did not have previously. Now, in order to sleep, Diaz takes Tafil (Alprazolam). He has back pain and has had ear infections. He told his relatives that he was hospitalized two days with IV fluids because he had a relapse on September 9th, his birthday.
The Law protests the elderly
In Nicaragua the Law of the Elderly applies to people over the age of 60. This Law orders that they be assured “a simple process before competent judges or courts, with priority, immediacy, quickly, without cost, with proper procedural guarantees, which protects them against acts that violate or can violate their human rights and fundamental liberties.”
Nevertheless, there are several cases, like that of the politician José Pallais, 68 years of age, who suffers from multiple chronic diseases: cardiac problems, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, sleep apnea, glaucoma and spinal cord problems. For these reasons his lawyer has requested appropriate measures, but she has not gotten any response on the part of the judges. Pallais has sores on his back because they took away the mattress on which he slept, and now he sleeps in a chair which his family brought him because of the sleep apnea that he suffers.
The politician Violeta Granera is in a similar situation, who reached 70 years of age in these months in El Chipote. Granera suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and needs to have heart exams because of coronary disease. In the jail the opposition figure lost one of her dental bridges, which makes it difficult for her to eat. Her lawyer also has requested a change in her measures but has not received a response either.
The Sandinista dissident Victor Hugo Tinoco, 69 years of age, suffers from Meniere syndrome, which is characterized by severe dizziness, ringing in the ears and loss of hearing. His lawyers have also requested changes in his imprisonment measures but have not found a solution.
All of this, in spite of the fact that Article 172 of the Penal Processing Code says that “the judge must examine monthly the need for the maintenance of preventative measures, and when they consider it prudent, replace them by others less burdensome.”
Article 20 of the Law of the Elderly points out that “all acts of institutional, domestic, physical, psychological, economic, sexual or other forms of violence against the elderly will be administratively or penally sanctioned in accordance with the existing national legislation.”
The Constitution of Nicaragua establishes in article 39 that the Penitentiary System is humanitarian, and that preventive imprisonment is the last measure that should be adopted in the procedural system. This is because other measures exist, like economic and personal sanctions, like house arrest, impediment of leaving the country, obligation of being subjected to the care of a person or periodic presentation before the court.