HAVANA, Cuba.- From the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, Cuban Felipe Almirall denounces the mistreatment received during the demonstration that took place on July 12, 2021 in La Güinera, in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo.
Felipe Almirall was lame after an accident for which he had to undergo surgery, but the procedure did not go well. That’s why he has a rod in one leg that he can’t bend.
He relates that on July 12 he had left his house to buy cigarettes and unexpectedly found himself in the middle of the La Güinera demonstration, just at the moment when the repressors were firing rubber and lead bullets at the crowd of demonstrators. Almirall assures that he tried to escape from the aggressors, but due to his condition he could not run, he fell and the police grabbed him.
Almirall, 62 years old, details that they initially took him to the Arroyo Naranjo bivouac, where he spent five days and was beaten. Later he was transferred to the Criminal Investigation and Operations Division of 100 y Aldabó for seven days.
As he told CubaNet, in that detention center he was a victim of psychological torture and lost track of time. He was finally transferred to the Combinado del Este until September 4, 2021, the date on which he was insured with a precautionary measure of house arrest, according to the prosecutor’s petition.
The trial against him was held in the week of December 20 to 26, 2021 in the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, located in Carmen number 501 between Juan Delgado and Goicuría, Víbora. Felipe Almirall was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the alleged crime of “sedition”. At the hearing, as relatives of other protesters have already recounted, the authorities ignored the arguments of the defense attorneys. At the end of the process, he and the rest of the defendants were imprisoned.
Because he was physically handicapped, Felipe Almirall was a Social Security pensioner, but after being arrested his checkbook was withdrawn.
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