(EUROPA PRESS) -Prisoners Defenders estimates that there have been 1,054 political prisoners in Cuba in the last 12 months, compared to the 137 with which February 2021 began, according to data made public this Monday.
Currently, the organization has 932 convicted political prisoners verified, but has warned that this figure “is only a fraction, between 50 and 60% of the real figures”, whose total verification is “simply unattainable by any organization “. At least 120 women are political prisoners in Cuba.
Of these 932, Prisoners Defenders has verified that 794 are prisoners of the 11J protests. Dozens of detainees have been released in recent months, but with fines “exaggerated amounts for Cuba,” he reported.
Of the prisoners derived from the repression of the protests, Prisoners Defenders has indicated that at least 32 are minors – 28 boys and four girls. Of 13 years there is one; from 15, three; 16 years old, nine; and 17 years old, 21.
In addition, 50%, 16 under the age of 18, have been charged with sedition. Prisoners Defenders has denounced that among them there are children with “impairments and mental retardation incompatible with violence and much less with sedition.”
Of these 932, Prisoners Defenders has verified that 794 are prisoners of the 11J protests
“Cuba is shattering its signature and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, imprisoning and destroying youth, bringing terror to families throughout the country and wildly causing irreparable pain to all those imprisoned and in their families and close friends,” lamented Prisoners Defenders.
In total, 166 verified political prisoners have been prosecuted on charges of sedition and at least 511 prisoners have already been sentenced. Of them, 194 with sentences of more than ten years, 38%.
The organization has recognized, like every month, the other 11,000 young civilians who do not belong to opposition organizations, 8,400 of them convicted and 2,538 convicted, with average sentences of two years and ten months in prison, through “pre-criminal” sentences, that is, In other words, without committing any crime –as the Penal Code verbatim indicates in its article 76.1 for these 11,000–, when contemplating the Penal Code that they would be people likely to commit crimes in the future “because of the conduct that they observe in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality. Thus, they impose sentences of between one and four years in prison without a crime being investigated or committed.
Prisoners Defenders has maintained that in the July events more than 5,000 people were arrested and more than 1,500 prosecuted. “In addition to our sources and studies, the data, the facts and the Prosecutor’s Office itself contribute to making this assertion increasingly palpable,” he indicates.
“For now, the regime recognizes that it has prosecuted 115 defendants who ‘are between 16 and 20 years of age,’ and that ’55 are between 16 and 18 years of age,'” he concludes.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
