The brothers Nadir and Jorge Martٌín Perdomo, sentenced to six and eight years in prison after the anti-government protests of July 11 in San José de las Lajas, have seen their appeal before the Provincial Court of Mayabeque dismissed. reported Radio Television Marti.
The brothers’ lawyer, Reynel Gustavo Brito, had stated in the appeal brief that in both cases “the partiality of the court is evident in discrediting the evidentiary means of defense with superfluous arguments without confronting them with other evidence.” In addition, the lawyer stated that the sentence “is severe without correspondence with the appropriate records of conduct that are accredited to the accused.”
The Martín Perdomo brothers were sentenced on February 8 for attack, contempt and public disorder. The Prosecutor’s Office had requested for each of them two years less than what they finally received, but the relatives were blunt in their opinion, considering the sentence “an aberration”, which could not be “celebrated or thanked”
The Prosecutor’s Office had requested for each of them two years less than what they finally received, but the relatives were blunt in their opinion, considering the sentence “an aberration”
“This sentence is the culmination of a totally absurd, disrespectful, humiliating play,” a cousin of the young people, Betty Guerra Perdomo, told this newspaper. “Everything that has happened with the case of my cousins from the beginning is an aberration until now, I do not want to say that it is the end because I cling to the hope that with strength and struggle we can change it.”
Nadir and Jorge were arrested on July 17 after having taken to the streets to protest the previous Sunday, like thousands of Cubans, against the government, the lack of freedoms and the economic catastrophe, increased by the pandemic. According to judgmentto which he had access 14ymedioBoth “decided to circumvent” the measures dictated by the Ministry of Public Health to limit the spread of covid-19 and joined “an agglomeration of people” on Calle 54 in San José de las Lajas.
According to the document, many others joined that march “to the call of the defendants” and “holding cauldrons, metal objects and the horns of motorcycles created enormous noises, which put the neighbors on alert” beginning behaviors of “total disrespect”, such as chanting “with euphoria” “coarse and vulgar” words such as “pinga police” and “Díaz-Canel singao”, along with “homeland and life”, in addition to making “gross claims to the protective commissioners of the place” and snatching a Cuban flag for a moment from an agent who was participating in a government counter-demonstration.
The most striking thing about the sentence is that it was pointed out that the protests escalated to stone throwing “without the involved Martín Perdomo brothers taking part in these episodes.” Despite this, both were sentenced to several years in prison and their allegations have not been taken into account.
“I still believe that every day they have spent there is a year of life violently stolen and, therefore, the fight is going to be for complete freedom,” said her cousin after the trial.
“To get there I have to pay for a car that costs me 1,500 pesos. The driver, out of consideration for us, leaves me the trip at 1,200 or 1,300 pesos. But I have to travel twice, because they are separated”
In addition, the brothers have been separated, Nadir ending up in Melena del Sur and Jorge in Quivicán, located 30 and 35 kilometers from the family home, adding to the drama for their relatives. “They separated me from my children by telling such a big lie that Nadir had asked to separate from his brother. I am going to complain to the head of prisons to ask that they be together again because the economic situation is difficult and it is not easy to pay for cars for two different places,” said Marta, their mother.
“To get there I have to pay for a car that costs me 1,500 pesos. The driver, out of consideration for us, leaves me the trip at 1,200 or 1,300 pesos. But I have to travel twice, because they are separated,” Perdomo said.
The mother had advanced the result of the appeal, when she stated that she was aware that, although she knew that the appeal would be “practically for pleasure”, she would be willing to do all the pertinent procedures, including delivering “letters to Díaz-Canel for the torture what they did to Nadir”.
“I am going to continue asking for freedom while blood runs through my veins,” he added. “They are playing with us but I have to keep fighting for my children.”
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