The NGO Prisoners Defenders has updated a systematic scheme of violation of the rights of persons in legal proceedings against 300 participants in the demonstrations of July 2021.
by Sandrine Morel ( Madrid, correspondent)
Ciro Ernesto, 27, was arrested in Havana after filming with his phone the demonstration of July 11, 2021, during which thousands of Cubans came out in the street to shout at the same time “we have Hunger! “And” down the dictatorship! “. He himself, he said, observed the procession, mounted, with his fiancée, on his electric scooter. In the police report which followed his arrest and immediate incarceration, decided without a judge interventing, the agents assured that he “uttered disparaging sentences against the revolutionary government” and that his objective was to “disturb the citizen tranquility “. The trial resulted in its conviction to seven years in prison for public disorders and affected by authority.
His case is one of the 300 others who appear in the complaint against the Cuban government presented Thursday, March 2, in Madrid, by the Prisoners Defenders. There is also that of Lizandra Gongora, 35 years old, mother of five, sentenced to fourteen years in prison for sabotage by a military court due to her participation in demonstrations of “11-J” in Güira de Melena, at South of Havana. Or the files of dozens of young people who are serving sentences of twenty years’ imprisonment for “sedition” around the island. Called “1,000 families against the Cuban government”, this “historic” complaint will be filed by the end of the month before the working group on the United Nations arbitrary detention.
“For years, we have denounced the arrests of political dissidents, but these individual cases have a relative impact, underlines Javier Larrondo, president of prisoners defenders. Now we have found a common diagram, which will allow The first time for the United Nations to examine more than 300 cases both and to demand from Cuba that he is explained on these human rights violations. “
a” barbaric procedure system “
According to the NGO, Cuban prisons currently contain 1,077 political prisoners, including 37 minors and 126 women. In all cases analyzed, seven characteristics are found: provisional incarceration is ordered by an “instructor” police officer or a prosecutor, without a judge intervening; Advocates defenders are not independent; There is no judicial independence; nor guarantees on the impartiality of witnesses and experts; The arrests have occurred within the framework of the exercise of fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression or manifestation; The charged crimes are not clearly defined; And, finally, the trials are summary or led by military courts.
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