An Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega over his alleged “systematic violation of human rights”, a lawyer who filed a case against the leader told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
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The warrant, lawyer Dario Richarte said, also applies to Ortega’s wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, and is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows for nations to prosecute crimes against humanity outside their country of origin.
Federal Judge Ariel Lijo has also ordered the arrest of a dozen other people linked to Ortega’s rule.
The crimes Ortega and his wife are accused of include murder, forced disappearances, torture and “deportation or forced transfer of population”, Richarte said.
The complaint had been filed in 2022 by a group of prosecutors from the University of Buenos Aires.
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Ortega, a 79-year-old ex-guerilla, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices since returning to power in 2007, seizing control of all branches of the state.