Havana (EFE)
The ruling, published this Thursday, finds the 9 people on trial guilty of a crime of sedition – all men between the ages of 25 and 39 – and links them to the “violent actions” that took place on that date in the vicinity of the popular Toyo corner of the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre.
At this point in Havana, some of the violent incidents of massive, spontaneous and eminently peaceful protests took place.
The sentence – which is not final and can be appealed – speaks of the throwing of blunt objects against the Police and attacks on agents.
In addition to inciting other people to join the protest and engage in violent actions, the court stated that the defendants “hoped to form a large conglomeration following their objectives and orientations of the enemies of the revolution for the sake of overthrowing the constitutional socialist government.”
The defense argued for its part in all cases that the crime of sedition had not occurred. The ruling ensures that the facts go beyond the types of illegal demonstration and public disorder.
In total, the sentences add up to 81 years in prison for 7 of those affected and 10 years of “subsidized deprivation of liberty for correctional work without internment” for the remaining two.
Some hermetic judgments
Activists and NGOs criticized these trials and denounced the fabrication of evidence, the lack of guarantees and the high sentences imposed.
The 9/11 trials are not open and the international media cannot access the trials. The official media generally do not report on these trials. Diplomats and NGOs unsuccessfully asked to attend.
One year ago now, the Attorney General’s Office reported the prosecution of 790 people in relation to these demonstrations, 55 of them between the ages of 16 and 17 (the minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16).
This is the second sentence related to 11J that has been published so far this month. In the previous one, 15 people received sentences of up to 13 years in prison.
So far, some 700 sentences related to 11J have been handed down, according to the records kept by organizations such as Justicia 11J and Cubalex. Of these cases, some penalties go up to 30 years in prison for the crime of sedition.
The anti-government protests of 11J, the largest in decades in Cuba, occurred in a context of serious economic crisis, due to the conjunction of the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and internal errors in monetary policy.
The Cuban Minister of Justice, Óscar Silvera, held a meeting this January with ambassadors of the European Union where the community bloc came to consider the pardon of 11J protesters, as EFE learned.