Miami, April 30, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today renewed its calls for Nicaraguan authorities to immediately released detained journalists Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora. Their trial, which was scheduled to begin yesterday, was instead postponed without a new date set, according to local news reports.
Mora and Pineda, journalists at the independent cable and digital channel 100% Noticias, have been held in pre-trial detention on charges of “inciting violence and hate” and “promoting terrorism” since their arrests during a police raid on their Managua newsroom on December 21, 2018, as CPJ reported at the time.
“Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda remain in prison on absurd charges and without any trial date, which confirms what we have known from the start: their detention is arbitrary and political,” said CPJ South and Central America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick in New York. “There has never been a valid reason for Nicaraguan authorities to detain Lucía and Miguel, and they should be released immediately.”
Julio Montenegro, the journalists’ lawyer, told CPJ via phone that this is the third time the trial has been delayed, but it is the first time that the court has not rescheduled it.