The artist Abel Lescay was finally sentenced to five years of “limitation of freedom” for his participation in the protests of July 11, 2021, as reported by the young man on his social networks after learning this Wednesday of the decision of the court of San José de Las Lajas (Mayabeque).
“My sentence is out. Five years of limited freedom. It’s at home, working or studying,” he confirmed on his Facebook profile. “I congratulate myself. Thank you all very much for his great help,” she added.
Sentenced in the first instance to six years in prison for offending a police officer during the 11J protests, Lescay receives this sentence after the appeal hearing was held on June 1.
According to his mother, Isel María Lescay Oliva, the young man was able to intervene in that last trial, something unusual in this type of process in Cuba. At the hearing, Lescay acknowledged having exceeded himself and argued that his seven-day detention had been sufficient punishment. “He said that he had already suffered all the harshness that implied that,” his mother said.
A few days later, it became known that the artist was expelled from the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), where he was studying musical composition. Lescay was in the second year and failed several subjects, according to his own words. In the expulsion act it is indicated that article 58 has been applied, which provides for those who “fail more than two subjects in the year enrolled” not to be authorized to repeat it.
“He said that he had already suffered all the crudeness that implied that”
The musician is now focused on his new album, which he tries to to finance via crowdfunding. “Now it’s my turn to play. I’m going to have a great album. Throw me the rope there, please,” she asked a week ago.
After hearing his first sentence, Abel Lescay said he had received the support of his colleagues at ISA at all times and that when he joined this course he went to talk to the rector, who referred to him as “a talented student” and gave him help counseling to recover from the impact of the days he spent in jail.
However, he did reply to the officials of the institution that lashed out against a collective letter from artists who defended their freedom and described it as a “campaign that seeks to discredit the Revolution”.
A few days before the first trial was held last January, Lescay convert with 14ymedio and he remembered all that he suffered when he was arrested, a day after the protests, taken from his house naked, and remained for six days under torture and death threats.
After being released, on July 18, “complicated” days arrived, he recalled then. “It’s ugly what happens in prison, and then on the street you stay poisoned for a while.”
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