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Roberto Pérez Fonseca was convicted in a trial in which the family and the Miami-based NGO Cubalex consider that there was no impartiality and that he was not allowed to present witnesses. The Cuban Justice found him guilty of contempt and incitement to commit a crime, among other charges.
Havana (AFP)
The Municipal People’s Court of San José de las Lajas, a town 35 km from Havana, imposed on Roberto Pérez Fonseca, 38, the “joint and single penalty” of ten years in prison for the crimes of contempt, attack, public disorder and instigation to commit a crime, according to the sentence dated October 6 and to which the AFP press agency had access, after his family was notified this week.
Three court judges determined Pérez Fonseca’s guilt based on statements by local police officer Jorge Luis García Montero, the only testimony recognized by the magistrates. Two defense witnesses were dismissed as “partial” because they were a relative and a friend.
The uniformed man said that on July 11, Pérez Fonseca “incited the rest of the people to form groups to throw stones and bottles” during the demonstration.
Pérez threw a stone that fell into the officer’s hand, “causing abrasions that did not require medical assistance” and threw another stone that hit a patrol “that did not present damage”, in addition to ignoring the confinement order by Covid-19, according to indicates the sentence.
The protester, who is the father of two children, was apprehended on July 16 by the police officer at his mother’s home.
NGO denounces a trial in which the accusations have not been verified
Laritza Diversent, director of the Miami-based human rights NGO Cubalex, denounces an “excessive” sentence and highlights that it is the longest sentence applied for these demonstrations. In other cases related to the protests, prosecutors have asked for up to 25 years in prison in proceedings that have not yet concluded.
What is relevant in this case is that the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office “was not subjected to contradiction (…) the victim, who is the policeman, is the only evidence that exists to incriminate him” and it is “the obligation of the authorities to prove the said, investigate, “adds Diversent.
For the director of the NGO, the sentences respond to a “penal policy” that would be being applied as a result of the July demonstrations with “severe sanctions” that in her opinion would be imposed with the will to exert “an exemplary effect” .
The Cuban Government denounces that the July protests, the largest that have occurred in the nation since the beginning of the Revolution, were promoted by the United States and indicates that they are part of a strategy supported by Washington to change the government model of the island.
The demonstrations broke out on July 11 amid a widespread food and medicine crisis and after a sharp drop in the local economy, based on tourism, after months of national and international closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The situation that the island is experiencing, with a generalized shortage, has also been accentuated due to the economic blockade that the United States maintains on Cuba and that was reinforced during the Donald Trump government, measures that have not been withdrawn by the current US Administration.
The rupture of a painting of Fidel Castro, in the background of the case
The convict’s mother, Liset Fonseca, believes that the real reasons for the long sentence are that her son helped break a photograph of the late leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and that he verbally confronted García Montero when he was detaining another young man.
In a video disseminated on social networks, images of the center of San José de las Lajas appear on July 11, in which a group of people is trying to break the picture, which is finally broken by the accused.
“Breaking the picture, that cannot be forgiven. They had to do something that was a great lesson,” says the woman, anticipating that her family will appeal the sentence.
According to the mother’s account, when Roberto was returning home from the demonstration, he saw the policeman putting a detainee into a patrol car and confronted him, saying that he was an “abuser.”
The demonstrations on July 11 and 12 in 50 cities shouting “Freedom” and “We are hungry” left one dead, dozens injured and 1,130 detainees, with a further 560 still in prison, according to Cubalex.
Archipelago, a political reflection group on Facebook, maintains its call for a demonstration on November 15 for the release of political prisoners, despite the fact that the Government has declared this protest illegal.
With AFP
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