The United States requested this Wednesday the release of the Cuban protesters detained in the protests of July 11, 2021, including Jonathan Torres, a minor when the events occurred, and who are being tried since this Wednesday.
“We are concerned about the upcoming trial of Jonathan Torres Farrat, who was only 17 years old during the 9/11 protests. He faces up to 8 years in prison,” the State Department’s Undersecretary for Latin America, Brian Nichols, said on social media.
The message is accompanied by a photograph of the young man, who was accused of “public disorder” and “attack” after participating in the biggest protests in Cuba in decades. “Families must be together. The Cuban government must release Jonathan and other detained protesters,” adds the person in charge of relations with Latin America at the Foreign Ministry.
“Families must be together. The Cuban government must release Jonathan and other detained protesters”
Torres’s mother, Bárbara Farrat, said she felt hopeful after the first day of the process in statements to the Spanish news agency EFE. “There is hope that a lesser sentence will be achieved,” she said.
Farrat, who defends his son’s innocence, said he has observed that the president of the Havana court that is trying him could opt for the sentence of “correctional work without internment.”
Torres’s mother had been summoned to testify against her own son, but she refrained from testifying, according to what she told EFE.
In the first session of the trial, the testimony of one of the Prosecutor’s witnesses – a police officer who claimed to have been attacked by the protesters – was rejected after he contradicted himself and failed to identify his attackers, according to the mother and her husband, Orlando Ramirez.
“They passed videos as evidence (against the 15 defendants) but there were times when an expert said that he could only be 50% sure that it was Jonathan. They also wanted to say that it was him because of the color of his shoes,” Ramírez reported. . An agent even, recalled Ramírez, said that there was a video of the attack, but it was proven that it was not.
Despite what they saw in the courtroom this Wednesday, Ramírez and Ferrat “doubt” that there could be any acquittal. “We all know the situation that the boys are going to have,” they lamented.
Torres’s mother had been summoned to testify against her own son, but she refrained from testifying, according to what she told EFE.
According to the letter to which EFE has had access, the defendants are accused of throwing “stones, bottles, logs and other items” at the Police and shouting slogans against the Government and President Miguel Díaz-Canel. According to the prosecutor’s request, dated December 30 of last year, the defendants carried out actions “of unlimited violence.”
The ages of the defendants range from 17 to 51, with Torres being the youngest. He is one of the 55 protesters between the ages of 16 and 17 who are facing criminal proceedings for the events.
Although the Supreme Court alleges that “due process” is observed in all cases, the relatives of those convicted and some NGOs warn of the constant irregularities. In addition, access to the trials by the independent or foreign press has not been allowed, nor have diplomats who requested it.
Following the 9/11 protests, nearly 600 sentences have been handed down, some of up to 30 years in prison. Some of the magistrates who are judging these cases have been incorporated into the list of repressors drawn up by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC).
Precisely, one of the people that make up the compilation is the Cuban prosecutor Vivian Pérez Pérez, who prepared the file against the 15 defendants now in Havana, as well as another for San Miguel Padrón. In both cases, the lawyer requested very high penalties.
“Since last June, Pérez has been with file number 597, in the database of Cuban repressors, for having prepared two unfair preparatory phase files against peaceful protesters of 9/11,” said Rolando Cartaya, an FDHC program specialist.
“Prosecutor Pérez Pérez could be accused of two counts of prevarication for requesting these sentences, obviously unfair and excessive”
“In the first, number 755, he requested sentences of between 5 and 14 years in prison for 15 of those who protested in the San Miguel del Padrón municipality, mostly young people, whom he accused of public disorder, contempt, attack and incitement to commit a crime. At the end of October, the relatives of these defendants received final sentences of between 3 and 10 years in prison.”
“Now it is announced that another 15 protesters from that popular uprising will go to trial this November 23 and 24, but in the Diez de Octubre municipality. the same crimes. But in this case, 13 of the 15 defendants face prosecutorial petitions of 10 years or more.”
“Prosecutor Pérez Pérez could be accused of two counts of prevarication for requesting these sentences, obviously unfair and excessive,” Cartaya concluded.
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