Mario Josué Prieto, the young Spanish Cuban sentenced to 12 years in prison for participating in the 2021 anti-government demonstrations, was released, the NGO Cuba Demanda confirmed this Saturday. Prieto’s family demanded that the regime release him for considering himself a psychiatric patient who had carried out suicide attempts.
“We have freed one of our political prisoners. Today, without further ado, they called the mother to go look for him and he is already at home. We have Mario Josué, from Holguín, at home and we want them all free,” public the NGO.
Prieto, with Spanish and Cuban citizenship, was arrested after participating in a demonstration against the Cuban regime on July 11, in Holguin. Although he was released two days later, he was arrested again on July 23. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sedition.
The young man, who lived in the United States, was trapped on the Island during a visit to his family due to the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) sent the Government a legal report on the situation of Mario Josué Prieto, whom it defined as a “political prisoner.” According to this body, which analyzed the sentence against him, the crime of sedition of which he is accused was never proven and the principle or guarantee that people must be tried by a natural judge and not by courts or emergency rooms, as well as the personal circumstances and health of the detainee were not taken into account.
For its part, the Spanish government said at the end of last November that it could not provide assistance to Prieto, since he still has Cuban nationality, after receiving a request for help from their parentswhich sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in September 2022.
In his case, Foreign Affairs explained, the reason is article 36 of the Cuban Constitution, which states that “Cuban citizens, while they are in national territory (…) cannot make use of a foreign nationality.” However, he assured that the Embassy in Havana “is in contact with the family” of Prieto.
The young man, who lived in the United States, was trapped on the Island during a visit to his family due to the start of the pandemic in March 2020. an arrest warrant from 2019 in Suffolk County (Virginia)as confirmed by the Police to 14ymedio and that it is still valid for the crimes of robbery, improper conduct, evasion of the Police, assault on a family member and littering in public spaces.
State Security also released the political prisoner José Díaz Silva, leader of the Movimiento Opositores por una Nueva República, on December 24, with extra-penal leave.
State Security also released this December 24 with extra-penal leave the political prisoner José Díaz Silva, leader of the Movimiento Opositores por una Nueva República (MONR), and detained since March 3, 2022. The activist Martha Beatriz Roque told Radio Television Martí that Díaz Silva was released on the condition that he go into exile with his wife, Lourdes Esquivel.
The Cuban regime also keeps several dissident voices in exile, who are not allowed to enter the island, as is the case of the opposition member Omara Ruiz Urquiola, who this Saturday, December 24, on Christmas Eve, was prevented for the fourth time from boarding a plane since he arrived in Miami in 2021 to undergo medical treatment.
“This time they let me get to the boarding gate, it was more cruel, but I know a lot about that. The Government of Cuba has the power here to go beyond the immigration controls of the United States, which I passed without difficulty. I will continue as long as I breathe”, wrote Ruiz Urquiola.
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