Havana Cuba. – In the Valle Grande maximum rigor prison, located in the municipality of La Lisa, the 11J protester Harlen Oropesa Carrero is on a hunger strike to protest the excessive and undeserved sentence received, as he himself announced in a telephone call. The information was corroborated by his cousin, Yilian Vargas Oropesa, and by another 11J protester, Maykel González Mora, by telephone from Valle Grande.
The week of October 10 to 16, Oropesa Carrero informed CubaNet, also in a telephone conversation, that they had ratified his sentence of nine years in prison for the alleged crimes of attack, contempt and public disorder. Likewise, he announced his decision to start a hunger strike in protest against such injustice.
During the conversation, the protester described the trial as a “rigged” process plagued by “false witnesses”; in short, lacking due procedural guarantees. The hearing took place on August 1 and 2 at the Popular Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, based in the La Víbora district. In this sense, his cousin adds that the relatives were not notified until the second day.
As a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Cuban Government has the obligation to guarantee the rights contained therein:
Article 8: “Every person has the right to an effective remedy before the competent national courts, which protects them against acts that violate their fundamental rights recognized by the constitution or by law.”
Article 9: “No one may be arbitrarily detained, imprisoned or exiled.”
Article 10: “Every person has the right, in conditions of full equality, to be heard publicly and fairly by an independent and impartial court, for the determination of their rights and obligations or for the examination of any accusation against them in criminal matters” .
Article 11: “Every person accused of a crime has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, in accordance with the law and in a public trial in which all the necessary guarantees for his defense have been assured.”
However, this has not been fulfilled with any of the protesters tried so far.
Harlen Oropesa Carrero is 38 years old. He lives in Luyanó Moderno, in the capital municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, and is a graduate of Primary Education from the “Presidente Salvador Allende” Pedagogical School. He was arrested during the popular outburst that occurred on July 11, 2021. In Ivanov prison he was forced to walk handcuffed between two lines of soldiers who beat up protesters on arrival. In the beating they broke a tooth. He remained in that penitentiary for two weeks, but the relatives who inquired about him were told that he was not there.
The political prisoner indicated that other imprisoned demonstrators had the intention of starting hunger strikes, in protest at the exaggerated sentences received.
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