HAVANA, Cuba.- After the appeal trial, carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office, this Thursday the People’s Municipal Court of the Isle of Youth changed the sentence of two of the protesters of July 11 (11J) 2021.
Ramón Salazar Infante, President of the Partido Autónomo Pinero (PAP) and his wife, Martha de los Ángeles Pérez Acosta, Head of the PAP Human Rights Department, had been acquitted by the Court in a sentence issued in January 2022, but now they must serve a year of house arrest.
Both were arrested on 11J, along with around fifteen other activists, for participating in the massive anti-government protests that day, and remained in jail for several weeks.
Francisco Alfaro Diéguez, leader of the opposition March 13 Movement (M13), who was also acquitted in the trial, was not included in the appeal process because the activist managed to flee the country illegally.
In the case of Juan Luis Sánchez González, the fourth protester brought to trial for the events of 11J in that territory, the Court decided to uphold the sentence of three years in prison for the alleged crime of “attack”. The young man is being held in the prison known as “El Guayabo”.
The first trial of the Pineros activists took place in December and those who were acquitted were only accused of “public disorder”, according to article 200 of the Penal Code (CP). When ruling, a month later, the Court said that “the narrated facts do not typify the crime of public disorder foreseen”.
However, when the sanction was changed this Thursday, after the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court determined to sentence them to one year of house arrest, based on article 209, paragraph 2, of the CP, referring to illicit associations, meetings and demonstrations. , events that are not related to the crime for which they were prosecuted.
“If you accuse me of one crime, you cannot convict or punish me for another. This is a violation”, declared the President of the PAP.
According to the records of Justice 11J and the Cubalex Legal Information Center, to date at least 585 people have been tried in relation to the 11J protests. For its part, Prisoners Defenders registered at least 1,046 people imprisoned in Cuba for political reasons, mostly after the 11J protests.
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