The Supreme People’s Court of Cuba notified this Monday, December 8, 2025, the sentences against Alejandro Miguel Gil Fernández, former vice prime minister and former minister of Economy and Planning of Cuba, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage and other serious crimes, in addition to an additional penalty of 20 years in prison for corruption.
The convictions are the result of two criminal proceedings held last November. The first, carried out between November 11 and 13, focused on espionage crimes and acts against State security. The second, between the 26th and 29th of the same month, addressed the corruption crimes committed during his management as minister.
Two trials, two convictions
In the first criminal case, Gil Fernández was found guilty of espionage, acts detrimental to economic activity or contracting, bribery, theft and damage to documents in official custody, violation of official seals and violation of the rules for the protection of classified documents. For these crimes, the Court imposed the penalty of perpetual deprivation of liberty.
In the second process, he was considered responsible for continuous bribery as a means to commit falsification of public documents, in addition to influence peddling and tax evasion, both of a continuous nature. This case led to a sentence of 20 years in prison.
Both sentences include accessory sanctions of confiscation of assets, prohibition of the exercise of administrative functions and deprivation of public rights.
Former Cuban Minister Alejandro Gil is charged with espionage, embezzlement and money laundering
“Ethical, moral and political degradation”
According to the official statement of the Supreme People’s CourtGil Fernández “through corrupt and malingering actions, took advantage of the powers granted by the responsibilities he assumed to obtain personal benefits, receiving money from foreign firms and bribing other public officials to legalize the acquisition of assets.”
The court noted that the former minister “deceived the leadership of the country and the people he represented, causing damage to the economy” and failed to comply with work processes with classified official information that he handled, which “he stole, damaged and finally made available to the enemy’s services.”
The ruling qualifies these behaviors as “highly harmful” and evidence of an “ethical, moral and political degradation” that justify “a severe criminal response,” in line with Article 4 of the Constitution, which establishes that “treason to the Homeland is the most serious of crimes.”
Background of the case
Alejandro Gil Fernández held the position of Minister of Economy and Planning between 2018 and February 2024, when he was dismissed without immediate official explanations being given. During his administration he was in charge of crucial economic decisions in the midst of the serious crisis that Cuba is going through.
Months after his dismissal, it was learned that he was facing accusations of eleven crimes that included espionage, embezzlement, falsification of documents, tax evasion, influence peddling, money laundering and bribery, among others.
The trials were held behind closed doors, according to authorities, due to the nature of the crimes related to national security, particularly the espionage charge.
Alejandro Gil’s trial this Tuesday will not be public “for reasons of national security”
Next legal steps
The Supreme People’s Court reported that both the accused and the Prosecutor’s Office have the right to file appeals within a period of ten days. Regarding the sentence of life imprisonment, even if it is not challenged, the Court will process an appeal ex officio as a procedural guarantee established in the Criminal Procedure Law.
Once all the appeals have been resolved, if the responsibility of the accused is confirmed, a joint and single sanction will be created to be executed among all the sentences imposed, as established in Article 86 of the current Penal Code.
The official statement highlights that both Gil Fernández and his lawyers “acknowledged that during the processing of the cases and the oral proceedings, the rights and guarantees enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic and the Law of Criminal Procedure were fulfilled.”
The case represents one of the most serious proceedings against a senior Cuban government official in recent years, combining accusations of treason with widespread corruption during the exercise of one of the most sensitive cabinet positions in the midst of the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
The former minister was in charge of the implementation of the failed Ordering Task, which tried to end the use of a double currency in Cuba but was a failure, with terrible consequences for the economy, such as an intense devaluation of the Cuban peso and significant inflation that has impoverished the Cuban population.
