HAVANA, Cuba. – The Popular Provincial Court of Holguín admitted the appeal habeas corpus presented this Monday in favor of Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina, young people from the El4tico project who were arrested on February 6.
In this way, the entity set a hearing for this Thursday, February 12, at 9:00 am, at its own headquarters, where the corresponding files and reports must be presented.
According to the NGO Citizenship and Freedomin the document, signed by the president of the First Criminal Chamber, Marcos Michel Betancourt Leyva, the Holguín Provincial Prosecutor’s Office was ordered to “immediately rule on the legality of the detention, the alleged causes and the conditions in which both young people are found.”
The resource of habeas corpus It was presented this Monday by Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez, friend of young people and collaborator of Ciudadanía y Libertad. In the admission document, the Court recognizes that “the request alleges detention without notification of charges, without specification of crimes and without complying with legal formalities, which could constitute a violation of fundamental rights, which is why their immediate freedom is of interest.”
According to Judge Betancourt, the young people were prosecuted “in a complaint without specifying a number, from the Provincial Police Operations Unit.” Likewise, it recognizes that they have been detained “since February 6, 2026, without the reasons for the arrest, the crime or the alleged facts being known to date.”
Zayas and Medina were arrested in Holguín last Friday and transferred to the province’s Criminal Investigation headquarters, known as “Everyone sings.” Both would have been accused by the regime of committing the crimes of “propaganda against the constitutional order” and “instigation to commit a crime,” according to reported to CubaNet a source close to the case who requested anonymity.
During the operation, the authorities searched Medina’s home, where his wife and young daughter were. According to Ciudadanía y Libertad, computers, phones, cameras and other work equipment used by the young people for their recordings were confiscated.
“I am currently experiencing a situation that I would not wish on my worst enemy. Today [martes 9 de febrero] “I haven’t seen my husband for three days.” wrote on Facebook Doris Santiesteban, wife of Ernesto Medina. “My daughter asks me about him, she is a three-year-old girl, intelligent, good, strong like her father, she asks me all the time where my father is, I want to see him,” he said.
And he added: “The only thing I ask for is freedom for Ernesto Ricardo and Kamil Zayas.”
Citizenship and Liberty maintains that the admission of habeas corpus “now forces the Prosecutor’s Office and the Criminal Investigation to officially explain why Kamil and Ernesto are detained, under what charges and under what conditions, a key step to document possible irregularities in the procedure and open a means of judicial control against a detention that, until now, has remained opaque.”
Since the arrest, hundreds of young people have joined the campaign to demand the freedom of the members of El4tico. Even the Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz joined this wave of solidarity on social networks by sharing in his Instagram stories a publication by the user “San Memero”, originally published on X.
In that post It is called to support the young people of El4tico and includes a video by the rapper Carlitos PU (linked to the group Bendita Esquizofrenia), in which he denounces the arrest and demands his release.
The message shared by the artist amplifies a digital campaign that, as seen on networks, includes slogans such as “We are all El4tico” and audiovisual materials that denounce police harassment against the project.
