(Reuters) – Nicaraguan police stated on Saturday they’re investigating a number of dioceses of the Catholic Church for cash laundering, a day after native media reported that the financial institution accounts of parishes within the Central American nation had been frozen.
The police, loyal to the federal government of President Daniel Ortega which has clashed fiercely with Nicaragua’s bishops, stated that since Could 19 they discovered “a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars}” in Church services in numerous elements of the nation.
Investigations “confirmed the illegal elimination of sources from financial institution accounts that had been ordered by regulation to be frozen,” the police stated in an announcement.
Ortega’s authorities has intensified assaults towards the Catholic Church within the wake of 2018 anti-government protests wherein some 360 individuals died after what human rights teams name police repression. The federal government accused the bishops, who mediated talks between the federal government and protesters, of making an attempt a coup.
The police assertion stated the financial institution accounts have been linked to non secular figures convicted of treason and different crimes, and that the investigations confirmed the funds entered the nation irregularly.
The police stated the investigation additionally confirmed “different illicit actions, that are nonetheless being investigated as a part of a cash laundering community that has been found within the dioceses in numerous departments.”
Reuters sought remark from a number of Nicaraguan bishops, however didn’t obtain a well timed response.
For the reason that anti-government protests, Ortega has imprisoned and expelled monks and nuns, banned pilgrimages and spiritual processions and shut nursing properties and soup kitchens that had been run by nuns.
Final February, a Nicaraguan courtroom sentenced high-profile authorities critic Bishop Rolando Alvarez to 26 years in jail for treason and cybercrimes, after he refused to board a aircraft amid the expulsion of 222 different political prisoners.
The expelled prisoners have been promptly stripped of their nationality, together with six monks from Alvarez’ diocese who had beforehand been convicted of the identical crimes.
Ortega additionally suspended ties with the Vatican in March, shortly after Pope Francis in contrast his administration to the Nazi dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
(Reporting by Ismael Lopez; Enhancing by Chizu Nomiyama)