Havana Cuba.- “For me that trial was a circus. He was rigged, manipulated, it was a lie, a judicial farce of the Cuban system”, he denounced before the cameras of CubaNet Eralidis Frómeta, wife of independent journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, from whom the regime is asking for six years in prison for the alleged crimes of enemy propaganda, contempt and resistance.
According to his words, during the hearing of the oral trial held last Tuesday, June 28, in the court of 100 and 33 in the Marianao municipality, the regime authorities surrounded the facility to prevent the attendance of activists and journalists who tried to show support to the freelance reporter.
“All the side streets of the courthouse at 100 and 33 were taken over by State Security and its rapid response brigades. Even all (the officers) carried their firearms on their belts… The traffic was diverted and people couldn’t even pass on foot, they asked for identification and turned them around,” Frómeta said.
The woman also explained that the witnesses who were supposed to testify on behalf of the journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca were not summoned by the authorities, which she considered a violation of due process.
The interviewee also recalled that of the five witnesses who were supposed to testify in favor of the prosecution and against the independent reporter, only two did so, although they did not testify against him.
“The witnesses declared the truth, that the ringleader, who summoned the activists for the activities and the event that the journalist covered (launch of leaflets) is called Ignacio Arias Martínez, a defendant who was not brought to trial. None of the defendants knew Yuri. The only one who knew Yuri was this Ignacio, who was the one who was not brought to trial,” he declared.
Likewise, Frómeta details that the prosecution lied after mentioning that planning meetings for “counterrevolutionary activities” were held in the journalist’s house, which, as he reflects, is not true.
“It was proven with facts, because the prosecution did not have a single piece of evidence to show there against Lázaro Yuri, that everything was false,” he emphasized.
Similarly, she alleges that “at the last minute” the authorities charged her husband with the crime of resistance: “They must have done it after the term they give for the lawyers to prepare (for the defense) because (this crime) it was not in the document of the fiscal petition”, he specified.
Meanwhile, Frómeta recalled that the police officer who beat her husband in the Zapata y C unit admitted in court that he had beaten the reporter and said he had not received orders from his bosses to do so.
“He said that he had hit him. When the judge asked him who sent it, he said no one, that he did it because he wanted to. There they questioned him a lot about that beating he gave Yuri, and that he threw him handcuffed down the stairs, ”he said.
Regarding the health of Lázaro Yuri, his wife referred “that it is still delicate”: “New symptoms appear every day. In fact, on the day of the trial he was sick with diarrhoea, but thank God they allowed me to give him some pills to stop the diarrhea”.
However, he assures that Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca does not receive medical assistance in prison and that there are no medications available for inmates.
“There is no dentist and (he) is now suffering from a tooth problem. There is no doctor. There is nothing. They are letting him die, ”he denounced.
On June 15, Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca celebrated one year of being locked up in the prison of greater rigor, the Combinado del Este, after documenting and later publishing the launch of leaflets with phrases by José Martí and Antonio Maceo.
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