MIAMI, United States. – The Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba sentenced the young men Félix Daniel Pérez Ruiz and Cristhian de Jesús Peña Aguilera to five and four years in prison, respectively, for the crime of “propaganda against the constitutional order,” the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH).
Both young people were accused of criticizing the Government on the social network Facebook.
“We strongly condemn the prison sanctions against citizens who exercise their rights of expression freely on social networks. The Cuban regime does not even hide that it penalizes free opinions with imprisonment and continues to hunt for any dissent,” said the OCDH in a press release issued on January 14 and sent to CubaNet.
According to the ruling of the Crimes against State Security Chamber of the Provincial Court of Santiago de Cuba, Pérez Ruiz (24 years old) received the longest sentence (five years), after he wrote on Facebook that he was “fed up with the Government.” Cuban” and called to “make oneself heard before the world” and to organize a demonstration against the political system in the Vicente García park in Las Tunas. The court admits that said demonstration “did not come to fruition due to the actions of the Ministry of the Interior bodies.”
His friend on the social network, Peña Aguilera (22 years old), received a four-year prison sentence for having shared the call and “taking it as his own and increasing the number of followers.”
The trial was presided over by judges Yoendris Rosabal Jerez, Angélica Maurelo Carbonel and Eilen Labrada Núñez, while the Prosecutor’s Office was headed by Adan Vicente Santos Santos. Other defendants in the same trial were acquitted.
The OCDH reiterated its position of rejection of what it considers a new case of repression against freedom of expression on the Island. “The Cuban regime does not even hide that it penalizes free opinions with imprisonment and continues to hunt for any dissent,” it stressed. the organization.
