The 15 defendants who participated in the peaceful protests on July 11 in Palma Soriano, in the province of Santiago de Cuba, received sentences of up to 12 years in prison.
Those sentenced, reported Radio Television Marti, They were tried for the crimes of public disorder, contempt and attack. That day, Commander Ramiro Valdés, who was visiting Palma Soriano, was rebuked by the crowd, according to videos released by opponents.
Yurisnel Rodríguez, 36 years old, was one of those who received a 12-year prison sentence for protesting in Palma Soriano; The Prosecutor’s Office had requested 15 years for him for public disorder, contempt, escape of prisoners and detainees and attack.
The same sentence was received by Jorge Reinier Arias García, 37, who is in the Boniato prison, for the crimes of public disorder and contempt.
José Ávila Cedeño, (38) and Andrés Quinta Torres, (44) were sentenced to 10 years, the latter was also charged with the crime of instigation to commit a crime, according to data compiled by Cubalex.
Francisco Candiot García was sentenced to nine years in prison, while Reynaldo Dell Arias received a sentence of eight years in prison, the same as Andrés Lugo Pérez. The latter, released until the day of the trial, pointed out that the process lasted 12 hours and all the witnesses were police and State Security. He added that on July 11 they only demanded their rights “that have been taken from us for so many years.”
“Now they say that my son received that sentence because he faced the police cordon of the repressors,” declared Juana Alvarenga Elegia
Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, Daniel Fernández Álvarez, and Elizabeth García Arias were sentenced to seven years in prison, the latter without internment.
Fernández Álvarez’s mother told Radio Television Marti that it was a “rigged trial, full of lies”. “Now they say that my son received that sentence because he confronted the police cordon of the repressors,” declared Juana Alvarenga Elegia.
For their part, Ángel Bismaury Herrera and Rodennís Ávila Corujo received six years in prison, and José Manuel Arias Campo and Enrique La O Martínez, five. Finally, Daineris Moya García was sentenced to three years of correctional work without internment.
The latest report by Prisoners Defenders (PD), made public this Thursday, indicates that there were 1,015 political prisoners in Cuba as of April 2022. The document also highlights that in the last 12 months, since May 1 of last year, Some 1,218 people have been politically imprisoned and around 874 are incarcerated as a result of the July 11 protests.
PDwhose headquarters are in Madrid, points out that they have all been tortured and that of the people registered until April this year, 32 are boys and four are girls. Within this group, two girls and seven boys were sentenced to “extremely high” prison sentences for the crime of sedition.
Last April, PD submitted a report to the United Nations documenting 13 children up to 13 and 15 years of age imprisoned for participating in the July 11 protests. Subsequently, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, insisted that there are no children under 16 in the island’s prisons.
PD points out that although the figures are “terrifying”, they observe a decrease in convictions in the last month, as Cuba received pressure from international bodies such as the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, both from the UN. .
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