The Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that a Costa Rican businessman arrested and held in “deplorable” conditions in Nicaragua for six weeks has been moved to house arrest.
Nicaraguan authorities arrested José Daniel Gil Trejos on May 26. Authorities said they were acting on an Interpol alert from Mexico to arrest Gil, who is wanted on fraud charges there.
Costa Rica claimed that Gil had been held in inhumane conditions that were not proportional to the fraud charge. Foreign Minister Manuel González accused Nicaragua of keeping Gil from seeing his lawyer and blocking consular services from the Costa Rican Embassy in Managua in violation of the Vienna Convention.
“We’re very pleased that the Supreme Court of Nicaragua has issued a resolution that grants house arrest for the Costa Rican Gil Trejos. We have given all the consular support that was possible, however, up until this moment we have only received silence on the part of Nicaraguan authorities,” González said in a statement.
According to the Foreign Ministry, Mexico has yet to request Gil’s extradition.