Prosecution’s Case Delivered to Sonia Garro’s Sister / Augusto Cesar San Martin

Poster by Rolando Pulido
Poster by Rolando Pulido

HAVANA, Cuba , September 20, 2013 , Augusto César San Martín Albistur / www.cubanet.org.- The Preparatory Phase Record (EFP ) No. 9 of 2012 , from the investigative body of the Department of State Security (DSE), against Lady in White Sonia Garro, was delivered this afternoon to the Carlos III Law Collective, to her sister Yamilet Garro.

The digital document has not yet been officially delivered to Sonia and Ramon, who have known informally the government’s case, based on Attack, Contempt and Attempted Murder.

The delivery was made by the lawyer Belkis Maura, in charge of the proceedings of the defense until the arrival in the country of the lawyer Amelia Rodriguez Cala, appointed to the case. The lawyer said that “The time to offer their conclusions is short and the prisons are distant”; this is the reason that the parties do not have the prosecutor’s report.

Maura said that none of the events described by the prosecution rise to Attempted Murder. She considered it an error to give this magnitude to the case.

So far, there is no trial date, but the lawyer believes that it will be in October.

The EFP signed by Vivian Perez Perez, the case prosecutor, includes medical certificates of the police injuries. Perez states that they were attacked by Sonia Garro Alfonso, Ramón Alejandro Muñoz (Garro’s husband), and Eugenio Hernandez Hernandez.

The document states that the accused, plotting together, conceived the idea of creating disturbances on March 18, 2012 at the intersection of 47th and 118th Streets in the municipality of Marianao.

According to the prosecutor’s conclusion for this purpose, the defendants “collected glass bottles, jars, old car tires, TV screen tubes,… fast burning flammable products such as gasoline, oil, lye.”

The report details the objects seized and their destruction, as well as a forensic analysis of fuels found in Garro’s home. According to prosecutors, they were “Molotov cocktails,” prepared for the assault.

In this regard, Yamilet Garro said “the items were for lighting during the blackouts that are quite common in the area.”

The report adds that the Lady in White and Ramón Alejandro were confronted by the Special Tactics Police group. The prosecution claims Aresley Favier Calvo, one of the specialized police  ran the risk of being killed when they threw objects that made him fall off a ladder.

The investigation described in the file refer to statements of the government opponents “against the revolutionary process,” which is mentioned as an aggravating factor.

The prosecution asks for 3 years for Sonia Garro for the crime of Assault, 5 Years for Public Disorder, and 8 years for Attempted Murder, with a combined sentence of 10 years.

For Ramon Alejandro Muñoz , it is asking for 5 five years for Public Disorder and 10 years for Attempted Murder, with a combined sentence of 14 years.

For Eugenio Hernandez, it is asking for 4 years for Public Disorder and 8 years for Attempted Murder, with a combined sentence of 11 years.

The government named as witnesses :

Daylin Nuñez Leal, Lisnay Arriete Durruti, Yurisleydi Almendares Alcalea, Pedro Enrique Alí Álvarez, Arisley Calvo Favier, Argelio Irsula Sastorre, Leonides Rodríguez Pérez, Mario Javier Betancuort, Iván Hernández Hernández and Oleinis Naranjo, members of the Police.

Also called will be: María Cristina Hernández Sierra, an official of the municipal government; the captain of the DSE, Yurisán Almendares Alcalea; and neighbors of the area, Yilian Carballosa Cruz, Josefina Milián Sánchez and Sonia Esther Díaz Reyes.

The Human Rights activist Sonia Garro has been in prison since March 2012.

From Cubanet
20 September 2013