Cuban regime judges 45 people, including two minors, for July protests

A total of 45 people, including two minors, will be tried as of Monday by the communist regime in Cuba in relation to the anti-government protests of July 11, according to data compiled by activists.

The group Justice 11J assures that there are three trials, which are held in Mayabeque and Havana, and that for some of the accused up to 20 years in prison are requested.

The prosecutor’s office charges these people with various crimes, such as public disorder, contempt, resistance, attack, outrage against the symbols of the country and, in the case of higher sentences, they are accused of sedition, the activists indicate.

Cuban judicial authorities do not usually report on legal processes, which the official media do not report on either. In addition, the hearings are not public and the international media have no possibility of covering them.

The largest of the processes is the one that takes place in the Municipal Court of October 10 in Havana, where 23 people with requests for up to 20 years in prison are being tried until Friday in a common cause.

In this trial, the activists have detected that two of the defendants are 17 years old. For both, the prosecution asks for 15 years in prison. Efe requested a position in this regard from the regional office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and for the moment has not received a response.

In Cuba the minimum criminal age is 16 years. The Penal Code (article 17.1) contemplates the possibility of reducing the sentences of minors by half. For those convicted between 18 and 20, the sentences can be reduced by a third.

Efe asked the regional headquarters of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for a position regarding the trials of minors, but for the moment it has not received a response.

In the western province of Mayabeque, two trials are taking place this week, both in the Municipal Court of San José de las Lajas. In the first, between this Monday and Wednesday, 15 people face up to 14 years in prison; in the second, on Thursday, 7 people face sentences of up to 15 years.

Several NGOs have denounced the lack of guarantees, fabrication of evidence and very high sentences for those accused in these processes for the events of July 11.

The Cuban judicial authorities assure that international instruments are strictly complied with, deny that these are political processes and emphasize that they judge only violent crimes and acts of vandalism.

The president of the People’s Supreme Court, Rubén Remigio, made an indirect reference this Monday to the processes at the opening of the judicial year by assuring that, despite the pandemic, the Cuban Justice has been able to continue prosecuting those who “committed acts of vandalism, violent attacks against authorities and officials, and other serious criminal acts.”

The Cuban Executive has also denied that these are trials of a political nature. The country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, recently assured that “there are no political prisoners” on the island and that Cubans “can demonstrate freely” against the revolution.

Prisoners after 11J

According to Prisoners Defenders, a Spanish NGO that defends human rights in Cuba, at least 842 people were in prison on the island for political reasons at the end of 2021, in most cases for the events of July 11. Among them, the NGO assures that there are 26 children between 14 and 17 years old.

For its part, the Cuban NGO Cubalex has identified in its latest count a total of 1,377 detainees as a result of July 11 and another 94 for the frustrated protest of November 15. Of these, 727 (of which 15 are minors) are still under arrest. Another 361 have been tried in summary or ordinary proceedings.

The NGO Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) recently denounced before the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) the situation of 39 children under 21 years of age “imprisoned in Cuba for protesting peaceably”.

On July 11, the largest anti-government protests in decades took place in Cuba, spontaneous and massive demonstrations linked to the serious economic crisis that the country is going through.

The decisions of the Cuban authorities in recent months have decimated the team of the Efe delegation in Havana, where currently only two journalists can continue to carry out their work. Efe hopes to be able to recover its informative capacity on the island in the coming days.