Madrid Spain.- The Government of the United States condemned this weekend the sentence to five years of deprivation of liberty against the Cuban independent journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca.
“We are saddened by the sentence of journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca to five more years in prison,” the US Embassy in Havana said through Twitter.
The consular headquarters also pointed out that journalism is not a crime, denouncing the repressive attitude of the Cuban regime against independent reporters on the island.
“Reporting about the reality of Cuba is not enemy propaganda,” added the entity.
The sentence against Valle Roca was also condemned by the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP), who demanded the immediate release of the communicator.
We are saddened by the sentence of journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca to five more years in prison. Journalism is not a crime. Reporting on the reality of Cuba is not “enemy propaganda.” #PrisonersWhy #PressFreedom https://t.co/IGfzpSdnk2
— Embassy of the United States in Cuba (@USEmbCuba) July 30, 2022
The ICPL recalled that “during the year in which the journalist has been in prison, he has presented different health problems, for which, among other reasons, organizations that defend freedom of expression and the press in the world have demanded that the Cuban regime immediate liberation of Valle Roca, to which the Cuban dictatorship has turned a deaf ear”.
“ICLEP calls on the international community to remain alert to the dangerous situation that Valle Roca is experiencing inside the prison and not to lose heart in their demands for the Cuban dictatorship to release the journalist,” said the press release. organization.
The sentence of five years in prison for Valle Roca, issued by the Provincial Court of Havana, for the alleged crimes of ongoing enemy propaganda and resistance, was announced by the opponent’s wife, Eralidis Frómeta, on July 28. .
Frómeta assured that he does not intend to appoint any more lawyers because they all respond to the interests of the Cuban dictatorship.
He also denounced that in Cuba there is no rule of law, there is no judicial issue or a Constitution that is at the will of the citizens.
“No Cuban citizen can go to those institutions called courts to ask for justice, because we all know that these are repressive apparatuses,” added the activist.
The leader of the Delibera platform is implicated in Cause 3 of 2022, corresponding to file number 31, related to the launch of leaflets with phrases by José Martí and Antonio Maceo that demanded democratic reforms in Cuba, freedom for political prisoners and the dismissal of repression.
The launch of the leaflets was recorded and shared on networks by Valle Roca on June 14. The next day he was arrested and transferred to the Zapata y C.
After staying there for a short time, he was transferred to Villa Marista, the Cuban State Security headquarters, and later to Combinado del Este, where he has been for almost a year.
The trial against Valle Roca, carried out with the “surroundings of the audience overflowing with police and State Security agents”, had been finished for judgment last June 28.
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