14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022 — Slowly, and missing their own deadlines, Cuban tribunals have meted out new sentences which provoke indignation among the family members of the July 11th protesters, not only for the number of years in jail, but also for the motivations invoked by the judges.
Maikel Puig Bergolla’s 20-year prison sentence last week for “instigating a crime” plus “two charges of attempted murder” for his participation on July 11th (11J) in Güines, Mayabeque province, is one of the most severe by a Cuban tribunal in recent months. In contrast, the sentence made public last Friday against brothers Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, is likely one of the most surprising in terms of the motivations invoked by the judges.
The tribunal also stated that Puig Bergolla should “repair material damage caused to the Ministry of the Interior in the sum of thirty-seven pesos and twenty-one cents.” Initially the prosecutor sought 25 years in a trial that began on January 12th.
The sentence mentioned that the accused, who “was enjoying the benefits of conditional freedom,” joined others in the Asbel neighborhood or las Yaguas in the municipality of Güines and “began traveling through the center of the street,” to the area of the central park. They state that once there, “they joined hundreds of people,” and “in blatant disrespect to the President of the Republic” yelled slogans such as “Díaz-Canel singao [motherfucker]*” and “dickhead police”. In addition, they mention that Bergolla encouraged neighbors to join “the walk.”
Another sentence made public last Friday was that of Nadir and Jorge Martín Perdomo, both of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque. Signed on February 8th by judges Sergio Rodríguez Garcés, Omar Castro Castro and Roberto Viltres González, sentenced the brothers to six and eight years in prison, respectively, for the crimes of “assault”, “contempt” and “public disorder”.
Although both sentences were reduced from what prosecutors were seeking –Nadir, from 8 to 6 years and Jorge from 10 to 8 years — family members were indignant. For Betty Guerra Perdomo, the defendants’ cousin, the sentence against them was “an aberration” which “cannot be celebrated nor appreciated.”
“This sentence is the culmination of a theatrical work, completely absurd, disrespectful, and humiliating,” she declared to this newspaper. “Everything that has happened with my cousins’ case from the beginning is an aberration until this moment, I do not want to say it is final because I cling to the hope that with strength and a fight we can change it.”
Guerra recounts that the trial, which took place in Quivicán on January 25th, and specifies that last week the brothers were separated and placed in different prisons. “I continue to believe that each day they’ve spent there is a year of life violently robbed and, as a result, the fight will be for complete freedom,” she said.
In the section on “proven facts” in the sentencing document, which 14ymedio accessed, it states the accused, on J11, “decided to mock” the measures dictated by the Ministry of Public Health for the COVID-19 pandemic, “which at the time was causing thousands of infections and deaths per day,” and that, “aware of the ills their behavior would cause,” joined “a group of people” on 54th Street in San José de las Lajas.
The protest, the document continues, “reached other individuals when the accused called for them to join the throngs, who while carrying pots, metal objects and motorcycle horns created loud noises, which alerted nearby neighbors and even those far away — very outward behavior unprecedented in the country.”
The behaviors referred to in the sentencing document and described as “total disrespect,” were chanting “with euphoria,” “harsh and vulgar” words such as “dickhead police” and “Díaz-Canel, motherfucker,” along with “Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life],” in addition to “making gross demands of those commissioned to protect the place,” and snatching a Cuban flag for a moment from an agent who was participating in a government counter-demonstration.
At one point, the document indicates that the protest achieved “an elevated scale,” as “stones were lobbed against establishments,” though it clarifies, “without the implicated Martín Perdomo brothers partaking in these episodes.”
Even so, the brothers were convicted, with the aggravating circumstance that the events occurred “in the precise moment of the COVID pandemic crisis.”
As to the defense’s version, the document indicates that the defense attorney, Reynier Brito López, “only considered the thesis that the charges faced by their clients did not constitute crimes and he sought absolution for both of them.”
For their mother, Marta Perdomo, her sons’ sentences have been unjust, with the added pain of having to go from one jail to another to visit them, “Nadir is in Melena del Sur and Jorgito in Quivicán,” she says. “They separated my sons saying one big lie that Nadir had requested to be separated from his brother. I will complain to the chief of prisons to request that they be together once again because the financial situation is very difficult and it is not easy to pay for cars to go to two different destinations.”
Furthermore, she stated that she will appeal the conviction and although she is aware that it will be “practically in vain,” she will go through all the necessary procedures, including delivering “letters to Díaz-Canel for the torture they imposed on Nadir.”
“I will continue to request their release while blood runs through my veins, it was unjust,” concluded Perdomo. “They are playing with ours, but I have to continue fighting for my sons.”
*Translator’s note: This has become a preferred epithet against the Cuban president, likely because his name and ‘singao’ roughly rhyme.
Translated by: Silvia Suárez
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