14ymedio, Havana, 13 June 2022 — The Cuban Prosecutor’s Office stands at 381 people firmly condemned following the demonstrations of 11J (July 11th), which according to the Public Ministry are people who “assaulted the constitutional order and the stability” of the socialist State.
In an official statement shared on Monday, after the required period for requesting a review, the Prosecutor stated that 76 sentences can no longer be appealed and shared the resulting sentences — deprivation of liberty — for 297 people of whom 36 committed the crime of sedition, according to the Cuban judges. All those convicted for these events received between 5 and 25 years in jail.
The majority of those convicted, including young people 16 to 18 years of age, were considered guilty of sedition, sabotage, armed and violent robbery, assault, contempt, and public disorder.
In addition, 84 people have had their sentences commuted for other alternatives, which include correctional labor without internment and limited liberty, always conditioned on good behavior. This is the case for 15 of the 16 minors.
Andy García Lorenzo, one of the prisoners who was released at the end of May, only enjoyed two days alongside his family. After going to find out about his new work location, the young man was arrested and the measure was presumably revoked in a similar case. García Lorenzo had made two political declarations on his social media during his brief period of freedom.
A month ago, Cubalex and Justicia 11J published an account, according to which only 40 people had received responses to their appeals and only one managed a significant change of conditions, from a year in prison to acquittal. In 32 cases the sentence was upheld while in the rest the modifications were minimal, changing the type of seclusion or reducing the internment period by one month.
Among the trials with the most convictions for sedition is the one in La Güinera in Havana, the appeals of which took place at the end of last month. In it, María Luisa Fleita Bravo, the mother of Rolando Vásquez Fleita, one of those convicted, exemplified the exhaustion of many of the mothers of those affected when she yelled out at the Tribunal, “We are tired of enduring all of this.”
Many families have appealed following the advice of 11J prisoner rights organizations, although success is nearly impossible, they believe the mere act puts on display and validates their discontent.
However, the families’ confidence is null, since on repeated occassions, from the mouths of their own leaders, it has been declared that Cuban justice works to protect the socialist system as stated in the Constitution.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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