The Organization of Islamic Cooperation welcomes South Africa's submission of a lawsuit against Israel to the International Court of Justice

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation welcomed the invitation submitted by the Republic of South Africa to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, for Israel to commit the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people.

The organization stressed that “all of the indiscriminate targeting of the civilian population committed by Israel, the killing and wounding of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, their forced displacement, and the prevention of them from obtaining basic needs and humanitarian aid, in addition to the destruction of buildings and health, educational and religious institutions, constitute in their entirety a crime of genocide.”

The organization called on "the court to respond quickly and take urgent measures in order to put an end to the crime of genocide committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian territories." 

Six Catholic priests were arrested in Nicaragua within 24 hours

The authorities arrested 6 Catholic priests in Nicaragua between Friday and Saturday, bringing the number of clerics arrested since December 20 to 11, including a bishop.

Among the new detainees are Monsignor Silvio Fonseca, priest of the Diocese of Managua, Miguel Manteca from the Church of San Francisco, also in the capital, and Marcos Diaz from the Diocese of Leon (northwest), according to these sources.

The list also includes, according to Nicaraguan media, priests Gerardo Rodriguez, Mikel Monterrey and Raul Zamora, who provide religious services in the churches of Managua.

These arrests come after the detention of Bishop Isidoro Mora and two seminarians on the 20th of this month, with the arrest last week of the Deputy General Bishop of Managua, Carlos Aviles, and the priests Hector Treminio, Fernando Calero, and Pablo Villafranca.

Media outlets including La Prensa, Confidential, and 100% Noticias, published in Costa Rica, cited denunciations from church sources, lawyers Marta Molina and Junarque Martinez, and human rights activist Heidi Castillo, all of whom are in exile.

On Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the "enforced disappearance" of Bishop Isidoro Mora for more than a week in Nicaragua, as well as a "new campaign of arrests of Catholic clergy."

The Central American and Caribbean Office of this UN agency said on the X platform, “In addition to affecting individual freedom, this violates freedom of belief, which is the foundation of all democratic countries.”

Monsignor Mora (53 years old), Bishop of Senoa, is the second priest to be suspended after the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez (57 years old), who gave him his support.

Monsignor Alvarez, who has been detained since August 2022, was sentenced on February 10 to 26 years and four months in prison on charges of “conspiracy and spreading false news.” He refused to leave for the United States with 222 political prisoners who were deported from the country and stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship.

President Daniel Ortega, who came to power in 2007, is engaged in a conflict with the Catholic Church. The Vatican closed its embassy in March and Pope Francis described Ortega's government as a "blatant dictatorship."