Official media show images of Félix Maradiaga after his wife reiterated her concern about his physical deterioration

( Spanish) — Media related to the Government of Nicaragua showed this Saturday, and for the first time in more than a year, images of the political scientist and former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga Blandón during a hearing at the Managua Judicial Complex.

According to those media reports, this Saturday a Managua Court of Appeals ratified the 13-year prison sentence against Félix Maradiaga for the alleged crime of undermining national integrity to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and Nicaraguan society, charges that he rejects.

At the time of his presentation at the judicial complex, Maradiaga looked thinner than in his last public appearance, pale, serene and with a slow voice.

After the reading of the sentence, in a video published by official media, people who were apparently reporters from those media insistently complained about Maradiaga because, according to them, he was lying about his health situation. The interviewer focused his questions on Maradiaga’s normal movements when walking or sitting, although his wife has expressed concerns about possible heart and circulatory problems, as well as the effects of prison isolation.

Félix Maradiaga, who had handcuffs on and was sitting at the same table from which he heard the court’s adverse ruling, replied that he did not understand what lie they were telling him about, when his situation was that he had no communication with anyone from abroad, that he was isolated and reiterated that the trial against him is politically motivated.

“I don’t know what you mean, we live in total isolation, the prison we are in does not allow any kind of news from abroad. I have always spoken the truth, this has been a political trial,” Maradiaga replied to the accusation.

The photos and videos of Félix Maradiaga were published a few hours after his wife, Bertha Valley, through a statement released by the political scientist’s law office, reiterated his concern about the deterioration of his health due to prison conditions. Valle even pointed out that her husband had started a hunger strike demanding an end to the isolation in which she finds herself.

Valle, who is based in the United States, has not been able to see her husband and is informed about his condition through relatives who have been able to visit him in the Judicial Assistance Directorate prison.

According to the statement from the defenders of Maradiaga, the opponents are kept in prison in what they consider to be torture cells, “without adequate food or medical attention, in isolation, darkness or permanent light, without access to sunlight and without any contact with humans or with their relatives”.

Berta Valle told on Tuesday that the projected image of Félix Maradiaga on Saturday shows the deterioration in her husband’s health, who, according to her calculations, would have lost about 30 kilos and suffers from high blood pressure.