The Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba (FGR) reported this Wednesday on more final sentences to participants in the massive anti-government protests July 2021 on the Island.
On this occasion, the Prosecutor assured that the sentences of more than 70 defendants were handed down between June 16 and 21 by courts in Havana, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba, for crimes of sedition, public disorder, attack and contempt.
As reported, sanctions were imposed on 74 defendants, while two were acquitted. Of those sanctioned, 56 were sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years, distributed as follows: 22 with terms of up to ten years, 30 between 11 and 15 years, and four between 16 and 18 years in prison.
Meanwhile, “18 defendants were subsidized by prison sentences for correctional work with and without internment and limitation of liberty.” In this case, 12 young people between 16 and 18 years of age are included, according to the FGR, which does not specify the ages of those sentenced to deprivation of liberty.
INFORMATION ON THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS DERIVED FROM THE RIOTS CAUSED ON JULY 11, 2021#Cuba #CubaForPeacehttps://t.co/cUGdFyxCHn
– Cuban Prosecutor’s Office (@FGR_Cuba) June 22, 2022
In this way, the number of people with final sentences for the protests increases. five days ago the prosecution reported of the sanctions imposed on 33 demonstrators who had filed appeals against their convictions, and previously had communicated on other sentences against 381 people, 16 of them aged between 16 and 18 years.
As on those occasions, the FGR reiterated that “the breach of the obligations imposed by the Courts in their sentences or the commission of a new criminal act, leads to the revocation of the subsidiary sanction and the fulfillment of the rest of the sentence originally set, in deprivation of liberty”.
In addition, it confirmed “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.”
“For these cases, the process of executing the sanctions is also initiated, ensuring that during their compliance the educational, coercive and preventive purposes of these, the reinforcement of values, the rectification of the behavior of those sanctioned and their social reintegration are achieved. “, concludes the note from the Prosecutor’s Office, which has stated in previous communications that “during the processing of these processes, compliance with the constitutional rights and guarantees of due process was verified.”
The foregoing contrasts with the testimonies of activists and relatives of those convicted, as well as non-governmental organizations, who have alleged a lack of guarantees, the fabrication of evidence and other irregularities in the proceedings, while at the same time criticizing the high sentences imposed, although it was recently reported that the island’s Supreme Court had reduced the sentences of some protesters.
