Nicaraguan prosecutors have charged a Catholic bishop with crimes against the state some four months after he was arrested in a raid on his presbytery.
Bishop Rolando José Álvarez of Matagalpa appeared in court to face charges of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and of disseminating false propaganda over the internet.
The Managua Criminal District Court assigned a lawyer to represent the bishop who will be remanded in custody until he stands trial on January 10.
Bishop Álvarez, 56, was stripped of his clerical garb for the hearing, wearing a blue shirt instead of a clerical collar and soutane. Observers remarked that he appeared gaunt.
