The Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba (FGR) reported this Monday so far 381 people have been sanctioned for the July 2021 anti-government protests16 of them aged between 16 and 18 years.
In a note published on its website and shared on its social network profiles, the FGR assured that “after the term had elapsed for the defendants or the Prosecutor to establish the appeals against the sentences handed down, in the exercise of the right that legally assists them, or for having These have been resolved”, the courts notified about 76 sentences that have become firm.
“381 people were sanctioned, including 16 young people between the ages of 16 and 18, mainly for crimes of sedition; sabotage; robbery with force and violence; attempt; contempt and public disorder”, confirms the statement, according to which “297 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment, based on the seriousness and circumstances in which the events occurred and personal conduct”.
“For the crime of sedition, 36 were sanctioned, who were sentenced between 5 and 25 years of imprisonment,” the note adds.
According to the prosecution “84 defendants were subsidized the sanction of deprivation of liberty, for other alternative penalties that do not imply —in principle, under the condition of good conduct—, their admission to prison“. Among these alternative penalties are those of correctional labor with and without internment, and limitation of liberty. “This decision includes 15 of the young people between the ages of 16 and 18,” says the FGR.
In Cuba, the minimum criminal age is 16 years.
INFORMATION FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC ON THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS DERIVED FROM THE RIOTS CAUSED ON JULY 11, 2021https://t.co/P3qvFuhOlO
– Cuban Prosecutor’s Office (@FGR_Cuba) June 13, 2022
In its communication, the FGR recalls that “the breach of the obligations imposed by the Court in its sentences or the commission of a new criminal act, results in the revocation of the subsidiary sanction and the fulfillment of the rest of the sentence originally set, in detention.”
In addition, it affirms that “in the sentences issued, the Popular Courts ruled in each case for the civil responsibility of compensating the people who were injured, as a consequence of the acts committed, and the reparation of the damages caused to the entities.”
And finally, it points out that “at this time, it is time to start the process of executing the firm sanctions imposed, and during their compliance, ensure that their educational, coercive and preventive purposes are achieved, the reinforcement of values, the rectification of behavior of those sanctioned and their social reinsertion“.
For her part, the chief prosecutor of the Directorate of Criminal Proceedings of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, Lisnay María Mederos, commented to the official site Cubadebate that “during the processing of these processes, compliance with the constitutional rights and guarantees of due process was verified and the investigations carried out by the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior were controlled.”
“The lawyers maintained communication with their clients, agreed to the proceedings and provided the evidence they considered appropriate,” added Mederos, who said that the prosecution’s actions “was based on a set of documentary, testimonial and expert evidence, which made it possible to establish and determine the participation of the accused in acts that are typified as a crime in the current Penal Code.”
The foregoing contrasts with the testimonies of activists and relatives of convicts, who have alleged lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and other irregularities in the processes, while criticizing the high sentences imposed, although it was recently reported that the Supreme Court of the Island had reduced the sentence of some demonstrators.
According to the agency EFEthe numbers released this Monday do not coincide with those published by different NGOs since the 11J trials began at the end of 2021. Prisoners Defenders, for example, noted on June 8 that a total of 168 protesters had been prosecuted only for the crime of sedition and that 246 had firm prison sentences of 10 years or more.
This Madrid-based organization itself has indicated that at least 1,046 people were in prison on the island as of May for political reasons, mostly due to the July 2021 protests. Neither the Cuban authorities nor the official media acknowledge the existence of political prisoners in the country and attribute to these people crimes such as those that motivated the processes against the demonstrators.
At the end of May, the organization Justicia 11J reported that 519 of 564 people who had been tried in Cuba for the demonstrations – 92% – were convicted and 40 were still awaiting their sentence, the Spanish media points out.
For its part, the FGR itself assured in January that 790 people had been prosecuted for “acts of vandalism” and “serious disorderly conduct”, of whom 55 were between 16 and 17 years old.
The prosecution then assured that in these cases it has verified “compliance with the constitutional rights and guarantees of due process,” despite the “manipulations and opinion matrices, which seek to accuse Cuba of human rights violations.”
According to the statement issued on that occasion, after the investigation was concluded, the FGR received 117 files from the preparatory phase on the events “of greater connotation”, these files implicated 790 people instructed “for acts of vandalism, which attacked authorities, people and property , as well as serious disturbances of order. According to the notification, 21% had criminal records.
Of that total, 110 files had been presented to the courts at that time, with 710 defendants for trial. Of these, 69% remained in provisional detention as a precautionary measure while awaiting trial.
EFE / OnCuba
