The activist Yeilis Torres Cruz was freed from charges this Thursday after spending almost a year under investigation for the crime of attack after being attacked by the official announcer Humberto López.
According to a document that Torres shared in their social networksthe Havana Provincial Prosecutor’s Office determined that it was not necessary to submit his case to the Court, although he was fined 3,000 pesos.
“I am not satisfied with the fine they gave me,” he argued in a live broadcast the opposition, former prosecutor of the Supreme Court and member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), because paying it implies acknowledging “that I committed a crime, which I did not commit, but already, it is preferable to be free than to be in prison.”
Torres Cruz spent ten months in jail during the criminal process, after being accused of an attack in May 2021 by Lieutenant Colonel Kenya Morales, of State Security, according to she herself told this newspaper. He had rebuked presenter Humberto López, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, in the street, who aggressively tried to take away the phone with which he was filming him. The activist learned of the accusation when she went to the police unit to report López for assault.
The Prosecutor’s Office specifies that it took into account in this decision “the little social harm of the fact”, “the clarifying position” that the accused showed, which assumed “an attitude of repentance”
In the document made public this Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office specifies that it took into account in this decision “the low social harmfulness of the event”, “the illuminating position” that the accused showed, which assumed “an attitude of repentance” and the family situation “being a mother of two children” and currently being “pregnant”.
That, Torres Cruz asserted in his video, is a lie: “They gave me my freedom because of all the kidney problems I have.” In any case, the opponent appreciates being at home with her family and assures that we must continue fighting for “the thousands of innocent political prisoners who are in prison.”
After the altercation with López, last year, the activist assured that the official spokesman hit her and tried to take her cell phone, a scene that was partly broadcast live through the social network Facebook. At that time, Torres recorded López leaving a building in Havana.
“Humbertico, how are you doing? Can you explain to the world why you are here in the house of a dear [amante] having a wife?” Torres asked López. Then it is seen when the presenter asks the woman to identify herself, which is followed by a struggle to, presumably, snatch her mobile and from which only voices and sounds are heard.
Yeilis Torres Cruz was arrested a few days after this incident when she attended an official summons to the police unit at 100 and Aldabó. She was then transferred to the Women of the West prison, in El Guatao, in the Havana municipality of La Lisa.
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