MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Top lawyer for Nicaragua before ICJ resigns over Ortega's new attitude

Reichler's announcement came a few days after Nicaragua's Ambassador to the OAS said there was a “dictatorship” in his country.

Paul Reichler, the solicitor representing Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has turned in his resignation citing “moral conscience” issued.

“I don't know what made you change, but you are no longer the Daniel Ortega whom I respected, admired, loved and served with pride for so many years,” Reichler said in a harsh open letter.

”My moral conscience demands that I must cut my ties with the second Ortega (as of 2018) and refuse to serve him,“ Reichler said in a resignation letter published Sunday by Confidencial.

Reichler was a member of Nicaragua's legal team in cases such as the ”Iran-Contra“ with the United States, the Caribbean Sea with Colombia, or the San Juan River with Costa Rica, which the Nicaraguan government counted as ”victories.“

”I will pray for the day when Nicaragua will be free again,“ Reichler also said in his letter, addressed to the Nicaraguan ruler, whom he characterized as one prior to 2018, which he labeled as democratic and peaceful, and another from that year on, who acted ”so ruthlessly, resulting in hundreds of tragic deaths.“

Hundreds have been arrested and prosecuted ”on trumped-up charges that are nothing more than a pretext to eliminate dissent and opposition,“ Reichler underlined.

He also said he felt ”honored and proud to have helped Nicaragua defend and extend its sovereignty“, but he did not hide his dismay at Ortega's decisions, whom he accused of having ”destroyed democracy“ and establishing ”a new dictatorship, not very different“ from the one he ”helped to overthrow“.

”I do not know what made you change, but you are no longer the Daniel Ortega whom I respected, admired, loved and served with pride for so many years,“ the lawyer pointed out. He added that Ortega's regime made ”false elections, maintains a submissive legislature, a corrupt judiciary system incapable of imparting justice, and the silencing of freedom of expression and independent media.“

He also reproached Ortega for sending into exile Sergio Ramírez, Luis Carrión, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Gioconda Belli, Edmundo Jarquín, and former Sandinista guerrillas Mónica Baltodano and Julio López Campos, in addition to Hugo Torres, the historic ”Commander Zero“, who died in police custody after eight months in jail without a trial.

”It is unthinkable to me that that Daniel Ortega would have assassinated Hugo Torres and sadistically taken the other great patriots, now locked up in their cells, on the verge of hunger and death,” he maintained.

Reichler's announcement came a few days after Nicaragua's Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) -Arturo McFields- said there was a “dictatorship” in his country.