To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights
and political and economic freedoms
News on political prisoner conditionally released, and updates on three others still in prison and at risk
One partial bit of good news, but much still to worry about in Cuba's prisons
This CubaBrief will touch on the cases of four political prisoners in Cuba. This is an extremely small sampling of what is a huge prison population. The New York Times on January 13, 2020 reported that Cuba’s prison system holds more than 90,000 prisoners. Furthermore "that approximately 92 percent of those accused in the more than 32,000 cases that go to trial in Cuba every year are found guilty. Nearly 4,000 people every year are accused of being 'antisocial' or 'dangerous,' terms the Cuban government uses to jail people who pose a risk to the status quo, without having committed a crime." Furthermore, the article says that "records show that Cuba’s prison system holds more than 90,000 prisoners." Sweden based NGO, Civil Rights Defenders, on the same day reported that " approximately 8,400 Cubans currently serve time for ”pre-criminal social dangerousness”.
The Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research, according to the January 13, 2020 article by EuropaPress, found that Cuba today has the largest per capita prison population in the world. The United States is no longer first according to this data.
The Cuban government does not allow visits to its prisons by the International Committee of the Red Cross, or visits to the island by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Therefore these reports by NGOs such as CubaDecide, Race and Equality, and an international organization like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) are extremely important and need to be shared as widely as possible to protect Cuban political prisoners.
José Rolando Casares Soto
The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) confirmed that Cuban political prisoner José Rolando Casares Soto was released under conditional liberty via a phone call with Mr. Casares on August 19, 2020. ... "Mr. Casares, an activist and member of the Cuban Youth Roundtable (Mesa de Diálogo de la Juventud Cubana) was released from prison and rejoined his family; however, Race and Equality continues "to insist that the Cuban government grant him unconditional liberty and rescind his convictions, as well as that of his wife Yamilka Abascal Sánchez."
Mr. Casares was one of the activists whose stories were highlighted in Race and Equality's excellent report Premeditated Convictions, "which examined the Cuban government’s strategies for criminalizing its opponents. In July 2016, Mr. Casares and Ms. Abascal attempted to defend a friend who was being detained by the police. As a result, Mr. Casares was arrested and detained for a week. During his detention, he was forced to undergo a strip-search and interrogation. Authorities informed him that he would be charged with “assault” and “resistance,” but he was not informed of any proceedings until six months later, when he and his wife were summoned to trial."
The Castro regime's show trial was closed to the public and did not respect international standards of due process. The married couple were placed on trial together.
According to Race and Equality, "Ms. Abascal was convicted of 'contempt' and served a two-year 'limitation of liberty' sentence in their home, while Mr. Casares was convicted of 'assault' and 'sexual obscenity.' This second charge emerged due to the police’s claim that he had taken off his own clothing while being arrested, when in fact he was forced to do so as police searched for a flash drive containing information about the Cuban Youth Roundtable."
No comments:
Post a Comment