Nicaraguan presidential hopeful Chamorro sent to trial

Managua, Sep 2 (EFE).- Former Nicaraguan opposition presidential hopeful Cristiana María Chamorro Barrios and four others were charged with money laundering and other alleged crimes Thursday, prosecutors reported.

Chamorro Barrios, daughter of former president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was arrested in June and is under home detention.

In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said that on Thursday an initial hearing was held in the case against the non-profit Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, which includes its former director Chamorro, her brother Pedro Joaquín Chamorro of the opposition Citizens for Freedom (CxL) party, and three other former employees.

The five defendants are under preventive detention and the case referred to trial.

The Prosecutor’s Office also reported that the hearing of another brother, journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios, was pending under the same NGO case along with four others, and labeled them fugitives from justice.

Journalist Chamorro, critical of the government of President Daniel Ortega and winner of the 38 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Awards, left Nicaragua in June amid a wave of arrests against opposition leaders, including seven potential presidential candidates, as well as business figures and journalists.

Before her house arrest, Cristiana Chamorro was the opposition figure most likely to win the presidential elections on Nov. 7, in which Ortega seeks his fifth, fourth consecutive, and second term together with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. EFE

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