Several NGOs have denounced the lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and very high penalties for the accused.
Photo: Yamil Lage / AFP / Getty Images
HAVANA – Activists denounced this Tuesday the beginning this week of three trials in Cuba of a total of 57 people, including 14 adolescents, who participated in the anti-government protests of July 11.
The processes, which will run until January 15, are taking place in Havana, the central province of Santa Clara and the eastern province of Holguín.
The prosecution has asked for some of the defendants up to 30 years in prison for alleged crimes of sedition. The activists assure that all the defendants participated in a non-violent way in the protests of July 11 or shared videos of these events on social networks.
In Holguín, 21 people are tried in a common cause, including four 17-year-olds for whom the prosecution requests 15 years of each one for both crimes of sedition. For four, 30 years in prison are requested.
Several NGOs have denounced the lack of guarantees, manufacture of evidence and very high penalties for the accused in these processes. Cuban judicial authorities ensure that international instruments are strictly complied with.
The Cuban Executive has also denied that they are trials of a political nature. The president of the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, recently assured that on the island “there are no political prisoners” and that Cubans “can demonstrate freely” against the revolution. He also stressed that in Cuba there are no ordinary prisons under 16 years of age.
Activists and relatives have also complained on social networks about the impossibility of accessing the trials and the police presence in the vicinity of the hearings.
The trials have been preceded by campaigns by activists to draw attention to these processes from the international media and from other countries.
Relatives of those prosecuted in Santa Clara asked for support this Monday from more than 30 international legations in Cuba, including those of Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Holy See, the UN and the European Union (EU).
According to Prisioners Defenders, a Spanish NGO that defends human rights in Cuba, at least 842 people were in prison on the island at the end of 2021 for political reasons, in most cases due to the events of July 11. Among them, the NGO assures that there are 26 children between 14 and 17 years old.
For its part, the Cuban NGO Cubalex identified in its last count, on January 3, a total of 1,339 detainees as a result of July 11 and 94 others for the frustrated protest of November 15. Of these, 710 (of which 14 are minors) are still under arrest.
The NGO Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) announced this Tuesday that it has denounced to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) the situation of 39 children under 21 years of age “imprisoned in Cuba for protesting peacefully ”.
In Cuba, the minimum criminal age is 16 years and the law does not distinguish from that age between minors and adults, as recommended by the United Nations.
On July 11, the largest anti-government protests in decades took place in Cuba, spontaneous and massive demonstrations linked to the serious economic crisis that the country is going through.
You may also like:
• The year we Cubans say goodbye
• Exiles ask the US to intervene to prevent a bloodbath in Cuba over protests
• “We are not afraid!”: Unprecedented protests in Cuba due to the Covid-19 health crisis
eldiariony.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.