Managua Files Charges Against U.S. Captive

The Sandinista government Tuesday charged a jailed Illinois farmer with violating public order and security and accused him of having ties to U.S.-supported rebels.

Government prosecutor Julio Cabrera delivered the papers to a court in Managua.

Cabrera declined to read the charges. However, he told reporters of the charges and alleged that James Denby, 58, was linked to “the war of aggression” by the Contras. Conviction could carry a prison term of up to 30 years.

It was not immediately known when Denby’s trial would start.

Denby, of Carlinville, Ill., was taken into custody Dec. 6 after his small plane was forced down by Sandinista rifle fire in Nicaraguan territory on the Caribbean coast. The site is near the border with Costa Rica, where he has a farm.

Denby’s family and attorneys claim he is innocent and that he flew into Nicaraguan territory because of a storm.

“The facts are that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” his brother, William Denby, an attorney from Carlinville, told reporters outside the Anti-Somocista Popular Tribunal.

The imprisoned Denby was not present to hear the charges, and the family had no word from the government in response to requests to see him.

Robert Swanson, a Los Angeles attorney representing Denby, said the Nicaraguans violated international law by using “deadly force” during a storm.

“I have witnesses who are afraid to come forward,” Swanson said. The Denby family filed a letter with the government’s human rights commission complaining that Denby was held in an underground cell with no light for 10 days, interrogated by 35 investigators and barred from access to a lawyer for 10 days, Swanson said.

Marie Denby, the jailed man’s wife, arrived Monday in Nicaragua. “I would like to see my husband today. It’s his birthday,” she said.