On Thursday, the Supreme Court of the Cuban dictatorship said that 62 people on the island have been tried for “crimes” during the July 11-12 protests.

“People who have presented themselves to the courts are those whose conduct constituted a crime.”, shown Jocelyn Sanchez HidalgoJudge of the Supreme People’s Court of the Official Gazette granma.

I noticed that The main offense found in 53 cases is “disturbing public order”.And that there are other less frequent cases such as resistance, contempt, incitement to commit a crime and victimization.

A week ago the judicial authorities had already mentioned 59 appendices, Just three fewer than those who reported on Thursday.

Thousands demonstrated in more than 40 cities in the country against Castro’s dictatorship Because of the lack of freedoms and unstable economic conditionsAnd left the rest of the dead and dozens wounded and hundreds of detainees.

Nearly four weeks after the outbreak of social protests, The authorities did not report the number of detainees in connection with the demonstrations.

Fines of up to 300 pesos for these offences. (about $12) Or prison sentences of one to four years, handed down by municipal courts in summary trials.

Social organizations denounced the arrest of more than 700 people Relatives of the sanctioned complain on the social networks of Lack of procedural safeguards due to the absence of a defense attorney in some cases.

“The Court has granted all facilities so that defendants who have the intention of retaining counsel, may, This right will be guaranteed‘ the official reassured.

From the courts so far, 22 appeared with the help of lawyers; One of them was acquitted, 45 appeals were filed, 40 of them were with a designated attorneySanchez said.

It also reported that 21 people subject to sanctions were under surveillance and participated in the protests and did not comply with the obligations imposed by law, and the procedure was canceled and returned to prison. “We can confirm that in the judicial proceedings handled thus far, strict adherence to” the guarantees given has been maintainedThe judge, who confirmed that the procedures were carried out “with adherence to legality and respect for legal procedures and all the guarantees provided for in Cuban legislation.”

During and after the July protests, which ranged from peaceful demonstrations to clashes with the police, There has been a wave of arrests of alleged participants and instigators, including unknown citizens, artists, opposition activists and independent journalists.

The demonstrations took place as the country slipped into a A severe economic and health crisis, with the epidemic out of control and severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential products, In addition to a long power outage.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Cuba “It remains worrisome,” she attributed the record increase in infections to the prevalence of a highly contagious delta variant.

The situation is complicated in Cuba. This is due to the delta variable, which was reported by the authorities in different parts of the country and there is still a large number of vulnerable populations, the director of health emergencies for the Pan American Health Organization said at a press conference. Cerro Ugarte.

On the other hand, the expert emphasized An economic reality ‘currently very difficult in Cuba’, with “long queues for food” and “population exhaustion in terms of measures to protect themselves from the epidemic”.

(with information from the AFP and EFE)

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