San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Protesters fear long sentences after mass trials
HAVANA — Cuban courts have wrapped up the hearing phase of six mass trials for people accused of involvement in the largest and most unruly protests on the island in decades, leaving more than 100 defendants awaiting potentially heavy sentences.
Relatives of defendants and activists following the trials in several cities across the island — the last of which concluded last week — said prosecutors were seeking sentences of up to 30 years in prison for crimes including sedition, public disorder and attacks. No date has been announced for sentencing.
Thousands of Cubans took to the street in several cities on July 11 and 12 last year to protest shortages of goods, power blackouts and economic hardship — with some also calling for a change in government.
At least one person died and several shops and vehicles were vandalized or burned. Officials have not said how many people were detained, but the organization Justice 11J, created to track the cases, has registered 1,300 arrests with more than 400 so far tried.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the government of responding to mostly peaceful protests with arbitrary arrests and crackdowns meant to silence dissent, which the government disputes. The extended Roman family accounted for at least six of the arrested following the July 12 protests in Havana’s La Guinera neighborhood. All were detained.
Relatives in the La Guinera neighborhood of Havana show photos Wednesday of imprisoned siblings accused of participating in anti-government rallies. Lengthy sentences are possible.
None of them had previous problems with authorities, according to Maria Carla Milan, the wife of Yosney Roman, who faces a possible 20-year sentence.
Yosney, a 25-year-old laborer, and his 18-year-old brother Emiyoslan were defendants in one of the Havana trials, while their sister Mackyanis, 24, has not yet been given a court date.
During the most recent trial,
the defendants “recognized that it was a mistake to have thrown rocks at the police,” said Milan, who attended the hearing. “They repented what they had done. They got caught up in the excitement. They don’t have any criminal record and they aren’t criminals. They had never had problems before.”
“But they are very young,“she added. “This number of years (sought by prosecutors) is
an abuse.”
Many of the protesters had no previous record of political activism and there appeared to be no clear leadership of the protests, though the government has accused U.S.-based opposition groups of trying to organize demonstrations with a social media campaign.