The process, which involves more than a dozen defendants and new charges against the former minister, began without official notice.
MADRID, Spain.- The second judicial process against the former Minister of Economy and Planning of Cuba, Alejandro Gil Fernández, began this week in Havana under a marked device of secrecy and without prior official communication to the population. As reported Cuban Diary Citing sources with direct knowledge of the case, the auditorium where the trial takes place had to be reorganized due to the high number of defendants, which exceeds ten.
According to another source consulted by the media, the process began “under a strong secrecy operation.” No details have been released about whether the hearing is public, semi-public or private. Gil Fernández’s defense lawyer, Abel Solá, remains silent about the procedure, which increases doubts about the nature of the trial.
A practicing lawyer in Villa Clara, interviewed by Cuban Diaryquestioned the absence of information and described it as serious that a high-level corruption case is processed without transparency. It considers that the Court cannot keep a process of this relevance secret or hold it behind closed doors, because this “violates essential principles: citizen control over the actions of judges, the right to know the arguments of the defense, the possibility of observing the taking of evidence and the presumption of innocence.”
The jurist adds that the lack of data on the identities, functions and levels of responsibility of the rest of the accused, as well as the absence of tax requests, prevents citizens from adequately assessing the magnitude of the case. He warned that, if this methodology of opacity is consolidated, the judiciary runs the risk of becoming a formal instrument “of repression of fundamental freedoms and rights, unprecedented since 1902.”
According to him, Gil’s defense follows the usual pattern in cases of high political sensitivity within Cuba: acting without offering information and avoiding confronting possible procedural irregularities. He claims to have learned from a source close to Solá that the lawyer has shown himself to be “very inaccessible, impenetrable, as happens every time he is chosen for high-profile cases, which is very convenient for State Security and the country’s leadership.”
Earlier this week, lawyer and former Cuban television presenter María Victoria Gil—sister of the former minister— He announced that the new judicial process could be held “in a matter of days“He pointed out that the case continues to be surrounded by secrecy similar to that which characterized the recent trial for alleged espionage. For the family, the separation of the processes is not accidental: they consider that the regime is trying to carefully manage the information and reduce the political impact of a file that, in the words of María Victoria, “involves very important people and can uncover many internalities of power.”
The crimes attributed to Gil Fernández – including embezzlement, money laundering, bribery and influence peddling – are related to his time as manager of the maritime insurance company Caudal in the United Kingdom. During that period he lived in London with his wife and children and had access to benefits typical of senior executives, such as a luxury car and membership in an exclusive Miramar club. According to his sister’s version, these privileges were part of the state structures to manage capital outside Cuba and did not constitute personal criminal activities.
The first trial against the former minister was held from November 11 to 13 in the court at 100 and 35, in Marianao, also under strong security. On that occasion, access to the building was restricted since dawn; Surrounding streets were closed and State Security agents dressed in civilian clothes monitored the entire perimeter, accompanied by official vehicles and police motorcyclists. The oral hearing took place in a military room and was held behind closed doors for “national security reasons,” without the presence of independent press or the public.
