Sandinista leader for first time denies abusing stepdaughter
 
                 MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- Nicaragua's former president, Daniel
                  Ortega, has for the first time denied his stepdaughter's charges that he raped
                  and abused her.

                  "What she has been saying is totally false," the Sandinista leader said in a
                  local television interview broadcast Wednesday night.

                  Until now, Ortega had called the allegations by Zoilamerica Ortega Murillo a
                  "conspiracy," but had left it to his wife Rosario and other relatives to actually
                  deny them.

                  Ortega Murillo, who turns 31 this week, charged early this year that she had
                  been molested starting at age 11. She filed a criminal complaint but Ortega
                  has immunity from prosecution as a member of the country's congress.

                  "Clearly she is lying," Ortega said when asked if his stepdaughter was telling
                  the truth.

                  "She knows all the affection that I had for her and that I demonstrated, the
                  affection that she herself showed toward me," Ortega said, calling the
                  accusations "inexplicable."

                  Ortega was the leader of the leftist Sandinista Front when he served as
                  Nicaragua's president from 1979 to 1990. He lost presidential elections in
                  1990 and in 1996. He remains the party's secretary-general.

                  Copyright 1998   The Associated Press.