Two dissident artists have faced their first day of trial in Cuba after detained nearly a year ago, during an ongoing trial that human rights groups labeled a “tram” and a “circus”.
Police and security forces surrounded the courthouse in Havana on Monday, while a small group of family members were allowed into the courthouse, an official from Cuba’s International Press Center told the news agency. Reuters.
The activists, Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Maykel Castillo, are prominent members of the Havana-based organization. San Isidro MovementAn artist collective led several protests before many of the group left Cuba under accusations of repression.
Otero AlcantaraThe 34-year-old was charged with defamation of the national flag, contempt and disorderly conduct, and faces seven years in prison, according to March 8 court filings seen by Reuters.
Castillo, 39, a rapper also known as Osorbo, has also been charged with assault and faces 10 years in prison, court documents show.
Representatives from the embassies in Havana of several European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden, were packed away from the courthouse awaiting access during the meeting. almost two hours after asking to come in and observe the proceedings.
“We are not allowed to enter the court,” a representative of the German embassy said before departure. The representative requested anonymity and declined to say why the group was denied entry to the court.
“We want human rights to be respected everywhere and in every country,” the diplomat said.
Both Otero Alcantara and Castillo appear in the music video for “Patria y Vida”, a defiant hip-hop song that has become the unofficial “national anthem” for widespread anti-government Protests broke out in Cuba last July.
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the trials, or to say why access to the courts was restricted.
Cuban state media, including the ruling Communist Party’s Granma newspaper, have accused Castillo and Otero Alcantara’s San Isidro Movement of being part of Directed by the US Attempted “soft coup” – an allegation the group denies.
The case of the two men has become a lightning rod for activists and human rights groups, who say Cuba has stepped up its repression after it happened last year. Demonstration.
Human Rights Watch last week called for the test a “farce”, while Amnesty International calls them a “circus”.
Cuba says those arrested before and after the July protests have been given a fair trial under Cuban law.
According to an audio recording released on social media by activists last week, authorities offered to free Otero Alcantara if he left the country, but he refused.
Cuban artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo will appear in court on Monday.
The governments involved, especially from Latin America and Europe, should follow the trial and call for the artists’ release.
Shared @HRW @amnesty Press Release:https://t.co/IjFnnkT3Zl
– Juan Pappier (@JuanPappierHRW) May 26, 2022
Otero Alcantara was also at the center of protests by other artists after his arrest last year. He went on a hunger strike and hospitalize to demand the return of works that authorities had confiscated while he was in custody.
To show their support, about 20 other famous artists demanded that their works be removed from the exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts, which they refused.
The streets outside the courthouse on Monday were quiet throughout the day. Some of the men’s activists and friends have alleged on social media that they are under state security surveillance and have been banned from leaving their homes.
Maritza Herrera, 66, said she came to show support for her friends Otero Alcantara and Castillo. She said that others were prevented from doing so, or dared not.
“They knew that if they got here, they would be put in a patrol car and taken to a [police] station. That’s why they’re not here,” she said.
