Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of Matagalpa was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison during a court hearing in Managua on Friday in the far-left ruled country where the regime has been cracking down on the Church and other critics. Pope Francis has expressed his ‘grief’ at the development.

The Catholic bishop, was convicted of ‘treason, undermining national integrity and spreading false news’, among other charges. The judge of the Appeals Court of Managua also announced that he would be fined and stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

The sentence came the day after Bishop Álvarez refused exile to the United States along with another 222 detained opponents to President Manuel Ortega The group also included five priests, a deacon and two seminarians condemned to 10 years imprisonment on charges of conspiring against the government.

A vocal critic of President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista regime is the first bishop to be imprisoned since Ortega returned to power in 2007.

The sentence comes as the crackdown on the Church in Nicaragua intensifies, with ongoing arrests of priests and closures of Church charities and agencies. In televised remarks following the verdict, President Ortega reiterated his accusations of “terrorism” against Bishop Álvarez.