The Suffolk Police (Virginia) confirmed this Monday to 14ymedio that the arrest warrant against Cuban Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo, published in 2019 and updated this October 2022, remains in force for the crimes of robbery, improper conduct, evasion of the Police, assault on a member of his family and littering in Public spaces.
The arrest warrant has been questioned in an email sent to this newspaper by Enmanuel Oliva Díaz, the young prisoner’s lawyer, sentenced in Cuba to 12 years in prison for going out to demonstrate in the streets of Holguín on July 11, 2021. The lawyer asks 14ymedio a rectification for the published news this Sunday.
For the lawyer, “the news contains a multitude of inaccurate data, speculation, and a series of flagrant falsehoods” that incur in “injuries and slander”, although he does not specify which ones.
Oliva Díaz also reproaches that this newspaper has “no interest in listening to, much less in publishing, the version of the family, or of their lawyer”, despite the space granted in an interview to the mother of Mario Josué Prieto, Niurka Ricardo, with whom contact has been continuous for weeks.
Also, the lawyer accuses 14ymedio and his collaborators of committing “the crime of discovering and revealing secrets”, and considers that he had “private communication” with this newspaper. On the one hand, the police file of Mario Josué Prieto Ricardo in the Suffolk archives is public and can be consulted on-lineand on the other, in the telephone interview with this newspaper, the collaborator identifies himself appropriately, not in a particular capacity.
According to the Spanish Penal Code, the commission of the crime of revealing secrets requires violating the privacy of the affected party by improperly seizing or intercepting documents or private communications.
The lawyer considers the information confirmed by the Police to be “unverified hoaxes” and asks 14ymedio Post a correction and apologize. This newspaper, however, has verified everything stated point by point and its veracity does not affect and should not affect the rights of Mario Josué Prieto, violated by the Cuban authorities, or as regards his legitimate defense, both on the island as in the US and Spain.
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