Five protesters from the same family have been sentenced to prison for the protests in El Caney, Santiago de Cuba, on July 11. Along with them, there are three others convicted in the same case, with sentences of between 12 and 5 years in prison. Only one is released from jail and must pay a fine of 4,000 pesos, Radio Televisión Martí reported after speaking with Dairon Yunior Labrada Linares, one of those affected, to date on provisional release.
“Currently I have my uncle Iván Arocha Arocha, my cousin Iván Arocha Quiala in prison and Eduardo Reinaldo Machado Arocha and Enrique Ferrer Echeverría are like them,” said the young man, who has received seven years in prison.
“Currently I have my uncle Iván Arocha Arocha, my cousin Iván Arocha Quiala in prison, and Eduardo Reinaldo Machado Arocha and Enrique Ferrer Echeverría are like them”
The latter, Enrique Ferrer Hechavarría, was the most affected in the sentence, with a sentence of 12 years in prison. He is followed by Iván Mauricio Arocha Arocha (10 years old), Iván Arocha Quiala (10 years old), Eduardo Reynaldo Machado Arocha (9 years old), Dairon Yunior Labrada Linares (7 years old), Abdiel Cedeño Martínez (6 years old), Yusnaira González Pérez (5 years) and Luis Ibarra Hernández (fine of 4,000 pesos).
The group came out on July 11 to protest and has been convicted of the crimes of public disorder, attack, contempt, aggravated contempt for the figure of the president and spread of epidemics. Those who have received the most years in prison are also considered guilty of prison escape, resistance and instigation to commit a crime.
“This process has been illegal, because they attribute non-existent crimes to me and that were manipulated by the prosecutor, the instructor and the false testimonies of the police officers and witnesses of the Prosecutor’s Office. Like the other relatives and friends of mine who impute crimes to them that they do not When we protested, we didn’t think they were so serious, because we only asked for freedom, medicine, food, because of the scarcity that is affecting us,” Labrada Linares, 23, told the Miami-based television station.
At the end of January, Dairon had accused the police of having “violently” detained him along with Iván and Eduardo Reinaldo, “young people of 26, 23, 24 years, all useful to society because we maintain a labor relationship” in the park of El Caney while a peaceful demonstration was taking place due to “disagreements” with the social system.
“The violence was put by the authorities because all the time what we did was receive blows even with sticks and pepper spray. Only we know what we suffer with so much abuse,” the young man lamented on Facebook, who also accused the courts of delay , since some of his friends and relatives had then been deprived of liberty for more than 200 days.
According to data from the Prosecutor’s Office, 790 people will be prosecuted for the protests, 55 of whom are between 16 (criminal age of majority in Cuba) and 18 (legal age of majority)
The sentences with higher penalties for the events that occurred on July 11 have been coming out with a dropper since the beginning of the year. That day and the following, at least 1,500 people were arrested, although the figures are difficult to verify. The first summary trials were held at the time, and were mostly settled with fines and small prison sentences, but the cases considered more serious by the authorities, of people who are accused of generating violent altercations, have taken months of investigation.
According to data from the Prosecutor’s Office, 790 people will be prosecuted for the protests, 55 of whom are between 16 (criminal age of majority in Cuba) and 18 (legal age of majority).
In mid-March, the highest sentences to date came out, 1,916 years in total for 128 people who received between 6 and 30 years in prison for the demonstrations on the corner of Toyo and La Güinera, in Havana. Many of those accused in these six files were exposed to sedition penalties, the most serious faced by those prosecuted for 11J.
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