Yosvany Batista Gómez, father of Zinédine Zidane Batista Álvarez, the young shot by a police officer on July 1 in the neighborhood of El Condado, in Santa Clara, he will be brought to trial in the second half of December for the crimes of public disorder, illegal possession of weapons and attack. He too will be judged officer who murdered his sonfor whom the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office requests the acquittal.
in conversation with 14ymedio, Batista, 43, confirmed that, with instructions from State Security, Cuban Television manipulated public opinion and presented his son as a criminal. The images that circulated on social networks, however, were unequivocal: the young Zinedine was lying on the ground, handcuffed and wounded in the thigh, while a police officer – whom the man now identifies as Lieutenant Alexis René Hernández García – kicks him in the abdomen and finally shoots him in the thorax.
That was the last episode of a neighborhood conflict in which the agents of the Fifth Police Unit –the most feared and brutal in Santa Clara– intervened too late, and to complicate the situation with more violence.
That was the last episode of a neighborhood conflict in which the agents of the Fifth Police Unit intervened too late, and to complicate the situation with more violence.
For Batista Gomez, who witnessed the death of his son and wanted to help him, the Prosecutor’s Office requests six years of deprivation of liberty. After receiving a call from the military prosecutor on duty and the deputy head of State Security in Villa Clara, the man was informed that he cannot leave his home or tell, by phone or otherwise, any details about the trial of the.
There is no date yet, but the authorities have assured him that it is a joint trial. Lieutenant Alexis René Hernández García, whose identity was not revealed in any of the Cuban Television reports, had only revealed his license plate number: 15388.
The Prosecutor’s Office, says Batista Gómez, describes the crime committed by Lieutenant Hernández García as “homicide”, not as “murder”. The agent works as a driver in the police force and comes from the town of Calabazar de Sagua, in the municipality of Encrucijada (Villa Clara), he says.
“The prosecutor asks for the acquittal of the policeman because he has ‘good conduct,'” says Batista Gómez. “They want to ‘grasp’ the fact that I have a criminal record, for the crime of failure to pay a fine and for resistance. But I did all that and paid for it. I cannot be judged for that again.” .
The sentence to which prosecutors aspire is one year in prison for public disorder, another for illegal carrying of weapons and four for attack. “In addition, the policeman says that I ‘went up’ with a machete. That’s a lie, otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here,” he adds, alluding to the fact that the lieutenant defended himself at all times using his service pistol.
At trial, the testimony of one of the many people who witnessed the murder of your son may help you. However, Batista Álvarez argues, it will be unlikely that anyone would dare
At trial, the testimony of one of the many people who witnessed the murder of your son may help you. However, Batista Álvarez argues, it will be unlikely that anyone will dare. “They put a lot of pressure on the scene,” he says. “Many could testify, but State Security and the heads of the Ministry of the Interior intimidated the people of El Condado. They also manipulated them with the murder. First it was said that it had been a stabbing [lo que mató al joven]. Later that was denied and they clarified that it was because of the shots.”
The man already has in his hands the file with his son’s criminal record. The result: the young man, unlike what was disclosed by Cuban Television, does not have any crime on his record. “I would like to ask the Minister of the Interior how come my son is the only criminal in Cuba with no criminal record,” he ironically.
This Friday, Batista Gómez finally got an appointment with a lawyer. Asked by this newspaper about the delay in accessing the firm, the man replied that he “did not have the financial solvency necessary for the contract.”
In an interview granted to 14ymedio Last July, Batista Gómez detailed the events that led to the death of his son at the hands of Lieutenant Hernández García. He affirmed then that the authorities barely mediated in the neighborhood conflict that his family was going through, despite the multiple complaints made in the Fifth Unit.
The dispute had become complicated in the preceding months, as some occupants broke into the house where Zinédine Zidane Batista Álvarez, his wife, and their children had settled some time before, taking advantage of the absence of its owner, who “went to Spain and died there.” “, and the “availability” in practice of the property.
Around two in the afternoon on July 1, the family that entered the house attacked the cousin of Batista Álvarez’s wife. When they went to report the incident, the police argued that they could not do anything.
The lieutenant who killed his son, whom Batista Gómez began to pursue after the event, shot him twice at his feet, but missed. Otherwise he “wouldn’t be doing this interview”
Faced with this response, the young man tried to resolve the conflict on his own. They urged the other family to face them on Rodolfo Valderas street, in El Condado, and after waiting twenty minutes they were attacked from behind with stones. “They threw stones at us and we also responded with stones. I received a plan with a machete and a stone on the forearm. When the police arrived, more or less an hour after the conflict began, everything was more of a verbal fight,” he said. Batista Gomez.
“The police officers did not try to calm the situation but rather intensified the violence,” which ended with the murder of his son, he lamented. He was not even able, then, to help his dying son, because the Police forcibly removed him.
The lieutenant who killed his son, whom Batista Gómez began to pursue after the event, shot him twice at his feet, but missed. Otherwise, “I wouldn’t be doing this interview, I would be in the cemetery,” he said.
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