Got TIPS or BREAKING NEWS? Please call 1-284-442-8000 direct/can also WhatsApp same number or Email ALL news to:newsvino@outlook.com;                               ads call 1-284-440-6666

Cuba sanctions 381 protesters, including jail for 297

June 15th, 2022 | Tags:
Cuba said yesterday it has sanctioned 381 people, including 16 young people between the ages of 16 and 18, who participated in last summer’s protests, the Communist-run island’s largest since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. Photo: Internet Source
REUTERS

HAVANA, Cuba – Cuba said yesterday it has sanctioned 381 people, including 16 young people between the ages of 16 and 18, who participated in last summer’s protests, the Communist-run island’s largest since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Widespread protests across July 11 and 12, 2021, saw thousands of Cubans took to the streets in towns and cities across the country. Many shouted “freedom” as they marched against food, medicine and power shortages amid a spike in coronavirus cases on the island.

Of the 381 people sanctioned, a total of 297 have been sentenced to between 5 and 25 years in prison for crimes of sedition, sabotage, robbery with force, and public disorder, according to the attorney general’s office in a statement released to state media.

The prosecutor’s office noted that 84 individuals, including 15 young people, were not given prison sentences. However, it warned that tougher sentences could be imposed for those who breached their sanctions or who engaged in new criminal offences. Cuba’s age of criminal responsibility is 16 years.

“The Attorney General’s Office continues to inform the public about the legal response to the events of July 11, 2021, which attacked the constitutional order and the stability of our socialist state,” the statement said. The Cuban government said in January that 790 people, including 55 under 18 years of age, had been charged for their participation in the protests, but some are still awaiting sentencing or are appealing the sanctions.  Human rights groups, the U.S. government and the European Union say the trials have lacked transparency and have repeatedly called for the release of those sentenced.

The Cuban government has previously accused the United States of financing and instigating the demonstrations

Leave a Reply



Create a comment


Create a comment

Disclaimer: Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) welcomes your thoughts, feedback, views, bloggs and opinions. However, by posting a blogg you are agreeing to post comments or bloggs that are relevant to the topic, and that are not defamatory, liable, obscene, racist, abusive, sexist, anti-Semitic, threatening, hateful or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be excluded permanently from making contributions. Please view our declaimer above this article. We thank you in advance for complying with VINO's policy.

Follow Us On

Disclaimer: All comments posted on Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) are the sole views and opinions of the commentators and or bloggers and do not in anyway represent the views and opinions of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Virgin Islands News Online and its parent company.