(Havana) At least 33 participants in Cuba’s historic July 11 protests will face trial this week for “sedition” in a Havana court, including six under the age of 18, the group Justicia 11J said on Monday.
Updated yesterday at 10:38 p.m.
By February 7, “the trial of the Toyo demonstrators will be organized. 33 people will be tried for the offense of sedition, including six minors,” the group informed on Facebook, which monitors all cases related to the July mobilizations.
Toyo is the name of a bakery in the 10 de Octubre district, in front of which clashes took place on July 11 between supporters and opponents of the government. Vehicles had been damaged and the road covered with stones and bottles.
According to the human rights NGO Cubalex, while the first hearing was being held on Monday, women were arrested near the court “with violence: mothers, aunts, sisters, grandmothers” of the protesters on trial.
Several activists were also arrested and internet communications were cut “in the vicinity of the court” located in the 10 de Octubre district, the NGO said on Twitter.
In recent days, Cuban justice has recognized for the first time that more than 700 demonstrators were being prosecuted – including 55 aged between 15 and 18 – and that 172 others had already been convicted, assuring that “the right to defense has been guaranteed and the lawyers provided evidence”.
According to Cubalex, 158 of them have been charged with sedition. Some have been sentenced to 20 or 30 years in prison.
In Cuba, majority is acquired at the age of 18, but criminal responsibility and the obligation of military service apply from the age of 16.
To the cries of “Freedom” and “We are hungry”, thousands of Cubans demonstrated on July 11. These gatherings, unprecedented since the 1959 revolution, left one dead and dozens injured, and 1,377 people were arrested according to the NGO Cubalex.
Cuban television broadcast on Friday the testimonies of three relatives of the prosecuted demonstrators.
“I, as a mother, ask forgiveness for her mistake, [mon fils] said it publicly and also told me to apologize to him, and I apologize to the country and all the media, this is something he did without knowing what he was getting involved in, ” in particular testified, his voice broken by emotion, Eudanis Campos Ramirez, according to the images broadcast on the television news.
The Cuban government claims that these protests were orchestrated from the United States.