The convictions arrive after more than a year of preventive detention and complaints of judgments without guarantees.
Madrid, Spain.- The Popular Municipal Court of Bayamo sentenced 15 people to sentences of up to nine years in prison, for their participation in the protests that occurred March 17, 2024 Against the prolonged blackouts, hunger and lack of basic services in the province of Granma.
According to him Official statement of the Popular Supreme Court issued in recent days, eight of the defendants received sanctions between six and nine years of deprivation of liberty, five were sentenced to sentences of three to five years, while two others must fulfill correctional work without internment.
The imputed crimes include public disorders, attack, resistance, contempt, disobedience and instigation to commit crimes. The defense and the prosecution may appeal to the Provincial Court of Granma.
However, organizations such as the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) denounced that the defendants had been arrested before trial for more than a year and three months, which they consider an abuse of preventive detention and a violation of procedural guarantees. OCDH warns that these sentences are part of a repressive pattern against those who manifest peacefully on the island.
The protests in Bayamo occurred in a prolonged blackout context, some up to 13 hours a day, and water shortage in several neighborhoods. Similar events were recorded in locations such as Gibara, where at least 27 people were arrested after demanding electricity and access to drinking water.
The demonstrations of March 2024 marked the first mass protests of that year on the island. According to A report of the Cubalex Legal Information Center corresponding to March 2024, these social mobilizations “were the epitome of an accumulation of small protests”, detonated by the acute economic crisis, prolonged blackouts of more than 15 hours, the lack of food, medicines and basic services, as well as the general discontent towards the government.
