2024-02-16 01:22:45
Ten months after the arrest of Yasmany González Valdés for having painted several graffiti against the Government and the Communist Party of Cuba, this Tuesday the trial in which he is prosecuted for the crime of enemy propaganda was concluded for sentencing. The Prosecutor’s Office requests six years in prison for him, two less than the maximum sentence provided for this crime.
His wife, Ilsa Ramos, told Martí News that his lawyer is trying to get the sentence lower – three years – based on his collaboration during the investigation. “He says that Yasmany does not have to have a sentence so close to the maximum penalty for that crime, which is eight years, because he admitted that he put up the posters and cooperated in the handwriting test. Now we have to wait for the final sentence that may take up to more than a month,” he explained.
The trial, held in the Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre, in Havana, was attended only by his closest relatives: his parents and his wife.
The trial, held at the Diez de Octubre Municipal Court in Havana, was attended only by his closest relatives: his parents and his wife. “It started very late because they did not bring the prisoners, who were him and another boy, also from Combinado del Este, for ‘enemy propaganda’ but not in the same case. A trial scheduled for 9 in the morning began at 11,” Ramos added.
The prisoner’s wife added that the prosecutor advocated during the trial for adding aggravating circumstances, including propaganda through his mobile phone and incitement to demonstrations. “The lawyer defended him, arguing that Yasmany was being tried for the cartels,” she said.
González Valdés, known on social networks as Libre Libre, was summoned in early April 2023 by the Police, who linked him to the clandestine group calling itself El Nuevo Directorio (END), which took responsibility on social networks for the graffiti of which it was accused. to the activist. The activist attended the interrogation, where handwriting tests were performed and an attempt was made to detain him, without success, for non-payment of fines unrelated to the case.
Previously, on March 20 and 23, two huge graffiti had been made with the text “No to the PPC”, one of them in the Faculty of Physics and another in Aguirre Park. But it was the last two, carried out on April 17 at the university stadium and 7 Humboldt Street, that led to a “violent search” at his house in which 15 agents confiscated a paintbrush, a mechanic’s overalls and his telephone. .
After that operation he was taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters and interrogated for a month, after which he was transferred to the Combinado del Este.
After that operation he was taken to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters and interrogated for a month, after which he was transferred to the Combinado del Este.
During his stay in prison, his family has reported that the activist has been subjected to harassment by other common prisoners, exposed to the spread of diseases and accused of trying to form an “opposition movement” inside the prison, which has earned him long periods of time. in punishment cells.
According to his wife, during the trial, the prosecutor recalled that the crime for which he is accused, enemy propaganda, is classified in “the Penal Code that has been in force since 2022 and that was approved by more than 79% of the population.” . However, this norm has not been submitted to a referendum and none of the two previous ones held – to approve the Constitution in 2019 and the Family Code in 2022 – received that percentage of approval.
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