(Havana) Around 30 Cubans accused of taking part in the protests on the island in July 2021 have been sentenced, bringing to 414 the number of people definitively sanctioned, some up to 25 years in prison, the prosecution announced general.
Posted at 2:54 p.m.
According to a public prosecutor’s statement released Thursday evening, out of 33 people accused of having participated in the demonstrations in Havana and in the neighboring province of Mayabeque (west), and who had appealed against their conviction at first instance, “30 were sentenced to penalties of deprivation of liberty”.
The sentences range from 5 to 10 years in prison for twenty of them and from 10 to 18 years for the other ten. Two other people were sentenced to community service and a third to a “limitation of freedom”, which does not imply imprisonment, according to the prosecution.
These convictions were announced shortly after Washington’s decision to sanction five Cuban officials for their role in the “unfair” trials and imprisonment of protesters.
It is a question of sanctioning “officials who deny Cubans basic human rights and fundamental freedoms”, declared Thursday the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, without naming the five civil servants targeted by these sanctions.
His Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, reacted on Twitter on Friday: “Once again, the United States is resorting to coercive measures against Cuba as an act of aggression, with individual sanctions based on false and absolutely unfounded accusations”.
“They don’t make us bend, they just cause us to reject more strongly,” added Mr. Rodriguez.
On July 11 and 12, 2021, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in several cities across the country to cries of “We are hungry”, “Freedom”, “Down with dictatorship”. The demonstrations had resulted in one death, dozens of injuries and 1,300 arrests.
Several hundred people are still detained, according to the association Justicia 11J.
The Cuban authorities claim that these demonstrations, the largest recorded since 1959, were orchestrated from the United States which, like the European Union and human rights organizations, is calling for the release of all ” political prisoners.
On Monday, the prosecution announced that since the start of the trials, 381 participants in anti-government rallies have been sentenced, including 36 to 25 years in prison for sedition. In January, the government said 790 people, including 55 minors, were being prosecuted for their participation in the protests.