Cubalex Launches Campaign For The Release Of Lawyer Julio Ferrer / Cubalex

Attorney Julio Alfredo Ferrer Tamato
Attorney Julio Alfredo Ferrer Tamato

Cubalex Center for Legal Information, Havana, 15 November 2016 – The Cubalex Center for legal Information is initiating a campaign in support of Julio Alfredo Ferrer Tamayo, an attorney by profession and a defender of human rights by conviction.

For years Ferrer Tamayo has faced alone a system where officials charged with following the law have used it as an instrument of domination, control and repression. He has denounced every violation of national legislation and international standards related to the guarantees of due process.

He has not emerged unscathed from his fight against the abuse of power. They have discredited him and acted against his wife. Today they are both in prison. He was charged in 2014 with the crime of falsifying public documents and in 2015 with the crime of contempt. He was tried and sentenced to 3 years and 6 months respectively.

The National Directorate of Penitentiary Establishments recognized the violations of the Law, but they keep him in prison because they cannot go against a judicial decision. The Supreme Court did not acknowledge the abuse of power of its officials in bringing charges. The National Assembly and the Council of State listened and remained silent before the abuses.

The sentencing court cannot change the decision, but prison officials allege that they have requested a correction of the combined sentence. There is no doubt, they are trying to resolve the abuses with more illegalities. Impunity is the order of the day. There is no intention to comply with the law, nor to punish those responsible for violating it.

There is nothing left for state institutions other than to listen to reason, but they refuse to budge. Their violations can only be corrected through a review procedure which, according to the law takes about three and a half months, but Ferrer Tamayo has already waited nine months for a response from the President of the Supreme Court.

Cubalex demands respect from the authorities for the National Law and asks anyone committed to freedom, democracy and human rights to join our campaign for the immediate release of Julio Ferrer.

Follow us on Twitter and use our hashtag #Free-Ferrer. Visit our Facebook page and give us a ‘Like’. Help us to spread our messages for his release on social networks. Add your voice to ours, we shout together in the phrase of José Martí: “In justice there can be no delay, whomever delays its fulfillment turns against himself.”

About Cubalex

The Cubalex Legal Information Center is headquartered in Havana, Cuba. We are a non-profit NGO, not recognized by the Cuban state. We offer free legal advice in matters of legalization of housing, immigration procedures, inheritance, labor, processes of criminal review, constitutional procedures and the defense of civil and political rights, at a national and international level, to Cuban or foreign citizens who request our help.

Twitter: @CubalexDDHH

Email: cubalexdd.hh@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubalexLey