(This story has been corrected to remove a reference that the alleged hitman was among those arrested in paragraph 3) SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Rican police arrested four people suspected of involvement in the June killing of a Nicaraguan ex-military officer living in exile, authorities said on Friday. Roberto Samcam, a retired Sandinista major, […]
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Costa Rican police arrest 4 in killing of Nicaraguan opposition figure
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(This story has been corrected to remove a reference that the alleged hitman was among those arrested in paragraph 3)
SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Rican police arrested four people suspected of involvement in the June killing of a Nicaraguan ex-military officer living in exile, authorities said on Friday.
Roberto Samcam, a retired Sandinista major, was shot to death in his condo on the outskirts of the Costa Rican capital, San Jose. He had been a vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega.
Among those arrested is a man suspected of acting as an intermediary between the shooter and those who ordered Samcam killed, according to authorities.
The head of Costa Rica’s judicial investigation body, Randall Zuniga, said investigators had not arrested the mastermind behind the killing and that they had so far not established a link between Samcam’s murder and any other country outside of Costa Rica.
A number of Nicaraguan opposition figures fled to Costa Rica after widespread anti-government protests broke out in 2018.
The protests, rights groups allege, were met with deadly force by authorities, and hundreds of people were believed to have been killed. Samcam had denounced Ortega’s military as being involved in the suppression.
(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Rod Nickel)