SANTIAGO DE CUBA. – David Leyva Palomo, 34 years old and native of the province of Holguinwas sentenced to 13 years in prison in March 2021 for the alleged crimes of “misappropriation” and “falsification of documents.” Currently, he is being held in El Yayal prison, in said province.
According to his mother, Maritza Palomo Martínez, he refuses to eat as a sign of protest against his conviction and also against the impediments for the Supreme Court to review his case.
“My son was punished without evidence; We asked for a review of the case and no one has wanted to give it to us. They told us the evidence was false. I have exhausted all official resources and channels, I even went to Havana, to the Central Committee [del Partido Comunista de Cuba]and for asking to be attended to I was detained for two hours. “I’m desperate, my son is dying,” the woman declared to CubaNet.
In 2019, Leyva Palomo worked as head of the ATM Section at the UEB Fábrica de Pienso Holguín. In that position, he detected and reported irregularities regarding crude soybean oil consumption, specifically in measurements and comparisons between real consumption and that reflected in the system.
However, he and two other company officials were accused and prosecuted. In principle, the prosecutor’s request was for six years for the alleged crimes of “misappropriation” and “falsification of documents.”
Although the lawyer who was then defending the defense told Palomo Martínez that there was nothing to worry about because there was no evidence against his son, in February 2021 the trial was held in the Provincial Court and the young man was convicted.
“At the time of the trial I was out of the country, but I was still in communication with the lawyer who, until the last moment, told me that everything was going to turn out well. However, upon arriving in Cuba I learned that there was never any investigation on their part; He never went to the company to request the evidence that exonerated my son and that we have today. We obtained the documents through another lawyer who went and requested them,” added the interviewee.
With the evidence collected, the woman and the new lawyer decided to request a review of the case before the Supreme Court, but the existence of an alleged crime due to “economic impact” in the file continues to truncate said appeal.
However, the defense has a document – signed by two specialists in Economic Management and by the director of the UEB, Orlando López Grillé – that denies the existence of any shortages and economic damages in 2019.
According to the mother, two months after the defense presented the appeal for review, she was recently summoned to appear at the Prosecutor’s Office. “They called me to ask for new elements, but there is nothing new, the evidence is what we already presented. We’ll see what they’re going to tell me, because it’s time for a concrete answer. “My son won’t last much longer,” he lamented.
Last Tuesday, the woman obtained an interview with the prison doctor, who informed her that her son had also stopped drinking water and was refusing to take medication for the flu he was suffering from. Despite this, the doctor assured that the complementary analyzes performed had yielded “stable” results.
“That’s their story, they’re letting me die there. When they take him out there will be no solution, because it was so that they would have taken him to the Clinic. [Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico de Holguín]. In prison they don’t even give him serum,” concluded Palomo Martínez.
