Nicaragua removes law licenses as UN expert warns of legal purge
Lawyers say their names vanished from a court registry without notice, in a move critics tie to Daniel Ortega’s broader campaign against dissent.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Nicaragua has removed legal credentials for large numbers of lawyers, according to The Associated Press, raising new concerns over the government’s control of the courts and the few remaining checks on President Daniel Ortega’s rule. A United Nations expert described the move Friday as a “purge of the legal profession.”
Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer who serves on a UN panel of experts focused on Nicaragua, told AP that lawyers discovered in recent days that their authorizations to practice had disappeared from the Supreme Court of Justice’s official registry. He said the extent of the removals was not yet clear, but appeared to involve “at least hundreds, if not thousands of lawyers.”
Nicaragua’s government did not provide official notice to the affected lawyers, according to AP. The government did not respond to AP’s request for comment.
Brody said he personally knew of at least 20 lawyers whose certifications had been removed. Other lawyers also confirmed to AP that their credentials had been revoked.
Juan Diego Barberena, a lawyer and human rights defender who has lived in exile in Costa Rica since 2022, told AP that he was among those affected. He said he knew of at least 25 other lawyers in the same situation.
Barberena said he tried Thursday to look up his accreditation in a government database and found that both his name and license number had been erased. He told AP the measure gives the government control over which lawyers can work in the country.
Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, now serve as co-presidents of Nicaragua. According to AP, their government has tightened its grip on public life since nationwide protests in 2018, which authorities violently suppressed.
Since then, AP reported, the government has jailed opponents, religious figures, journalists and other critics, while thousands of Nicaraguans have fled abroad. Authorities have also stripped hundreds of people of their citizenship and property, according to AP.
The government has also closed more than 5,000 nongovernmental organizations since 2018, AP reported. Those groups included many religious organizations, as well as local rotary clubs and scouting groups.
The removal of lawyers’ credentials mirrors earlier actions against Nicaraguans who lost citizenship, according to AP. Some exiles have said they or relatives searched official databases for birth certificates or other records and were told the documents did not exist.
Brody and Barberena told AP that the new removals appear broader than a move against prominent dissenters. Barberena said some affected lawyers lived outside Nicaragua, while others worked in criminal or family law and did not handle political cases. He said some were government supporters.
Brody said the action follows a pattern of pressure on groups that could challenge the government, including NGOs, universities, independent media and churches. He told AP the legal profession now appears to be another target.
Barberena told AP the measure serves both to punish dissent and to limit the role lawyers, experts and academics could play in Nicaragua’s future institutions. Brody framed it as another step against independence in a judicial system already under the control of Ortega and Murillo.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.