MADRID, Spain.- The young Spanish Cuban Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for more than a year for his participation in the popular demonstrations on July 11, 2021 (July 11), was released this weekend.
The news was confirmed by the NGO Cuba Demand: “Urgent! We have freed one of our political prisoners! Today, without further ado, they called the mother to go look for him and he is already home! We have Mario Josué de Holguín at home and we want them all free! It is not necessary so much cruelty, Freedom! Thanks to the Cuba Demanda Inc. team and the Spanish lawyer Emmanuel Oliva Díaz and especially Lic. Yanira Duque,” the organization wrote on the social network Facebook.
For his participation in the 11J protests, Prieto Ricardo had been sentenced to 12 years in prison, despite being a patient who has suffered from psychiatric problems since he was a child and who has attempted suicide on several occasions.
last september The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) had sent the Spanish government a legal report on the situation of Mario Josué Prieto, in which it stated that the young man was the victim of a rigged judicial process full of irregularities in which not even he was able to prove his guilt; nor were Prieto Ricardo’s personal and health circumstances taken into account.
In November, the Spanish government clarified that it could not provide the usual assistance to the detainee that is normally provided in the cases of Spaniards imprisoned abroad, since Prieto also held Cuban citizenship. And according to article 36 of the Cuban Constitution, “Cuban citizens, while they are in national territory (…) cannot make use of a foreign nationality.”
However, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured that it would continue to follow the case and take steps with the Cuban authorities “to alleviate their prison situation.”
Mario Josué Prieto, a resident of the United States, had traveled to Cuba in March 2020. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, he was unable to leave the Island, where he was still staying on July 11, 2021 (11J).
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