Jan 27 (Reuters) – A Nicaraguan court has convicted Bayardo Arce, a long-time ally and economic adviser to President Daniel Ortega, of money laundering, the Nicaraguan attorney general’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Arce was also one of nine Sandinista National Liberation Front commanders who ruled the Central American country in the 1980s and was convicted along with his personal assistant Ricardo Bonilla. Arce’s wife and her brother, both in exile, were named as co-conspirators in the scheme.
Arce has been jailed for six months since being detained in July. The ruling against him came three days after his exiled family told El Pais he was arrested without a warrant, held in solitary confinement and mistreated and now feared for his life due to his age and serious health condition.
Arce was not formally charged or brought before a judge, according to his family. The Nicaraguan government has not said when or if Arce will go to trial, and no verdict was handed down on Tuesday.
The judge said the defendants carried out a long-running $2.71 billion money laundering scheme that involved tax fraud and used shell companies, bank accounts and financial transactions to hide the origin and destination of the funds.
Arce is the last Sandinista commander to back Ortega, who has increasingly cracked down on dissent and isolating the country from global diplomacy.
Relatives told El PaÃs that Arce was a political prisoner who was arrested as part of an internal purge led by Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, that targeted obstacles to the family’s succession to power. Murillo now serves as co-president alongside Ortega.
Murillo, who also serves as government spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Gabriela Selser; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Kylie Madry and Alistair Bell)
