MIAMI, United States. — The prisoner Roberto Pérez Ortega, a protester on July 11, 2021 (11J) in the town of La Güinera, denounced mistreatment against him perpetrated by the prison authorities of the Eastern CombineIn the Habana.
The 35-year-old inmate told CubaNet who was reprimanded for refusing to watch the parade of the First of Mayan order that came from one of the prison guards.
Pérez Ortega recounts that on the morning of that day he had sat in front of the television to watch the morning news when a guard —whose name he does not know— arrived and ordered him to watch the parade.
The also musician and actor stresses that, after flatly refusing, another five troops tried to force him to visualize the official act.
imprisoned for asking for freedom
Under pressure from the guards, the inmate continued to firmly refuse while emphasizing that he had been sentenced only for demanding a change in Cuba and for claiming his right to protest.
The protester from La Güinera points out that, in retaliation, the military locked him up in a punishment cell. Shortly after, they took him out of there and transferred him to the third floor, north wing, which is where the recidivist prisoners, the most dangerous, are incarcerated.
In December 2021, Roberto Pérez Ortega was sentenced to 25 years in prison —despite the fact that his prosecutor’s request was for 24 years— for the alleged crime of sedition, the same charge that has been used to imprison dozens of 11J protesters in Cuba.
The political prisoner is the father of a 13-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy.
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