Madrid Spain.- The Cuban independent journalist and political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was sentenced to six years in prison for the Provincial Court of Havana, due to the alleged crimes of continued enemy propaganda and resistance, reported through social networks his wife, Eralidis Frometa.
“At 4:20 pm on July 28, I received my husband’s sentence, sentenced to six years in prison,” Frómeta said.
The activist assured that she does not intend to appoint any more lawyers because they all respond to the interests of the Cuban dictatorship.
He also denounced that in Cuba there is no rule of law, there is no judicial issue or a Constitution that is at the will of the citizens.
“No Cuban citizen can go to those institutions called courts to ask for justice, because we all know that these are repressive apparatuses,” he added.
The leader of the Delibera platform is implicated in Cause 3 of 2022, corresponding to file number 31, related to the launch of leaflets with phrases by José Martí and Antonio Maceo demanding democratic reforms in Cuba, freedom for political prisoners and an end to repression.
The launch of the leaflets was recorded and shared on networks by Valle Roca on June 14. The next day he was arrested and transferred to the Zapata y C.
After staying there for a short time, he was transferred to Villa Marista, the Cuban State Security headquarters, and later to Combinado del Este, where he has been for almost a year.
His companions were tried and convicted in the same case. Alien Tijerino Castro (four years in prison), Ruslán Hernández Reyes (two years in prison) and Yusniel Milián González (one year in prison).
Trial against Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca
The trial against Valle Roca had been finished for sentence last June 28.
As explained by his wife, the trial, which took place with “the audience around the audience overflowing with police and State Security agents,” began at 10:30 in the morning and lasted until 6:00 in the afternoon.
The president of the court asked the prosecutor Sheila Montero to present evidence about her accusations, but Montero “did not manage to show a single piece of evidence to support the accusation that she made to Yuri that he was the leader of the demonstrations,” Frómeta explained.
After learning of the sentencing petition, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded the Cuban regime the immediate release and withdrawal of charges against the independent journalist.
On that occasion, CPJ’s Latin America and Caribbean program coordinator, Natalie Southwick, declared: “After more than a year in pretrial detention, Cuban journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca is being forced to go through a sham trial that could sentence you to years in prison simply for reporting. (…) The Cuban authorities must release him immediately and stop treating independent journalists like criminals.”
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