13 Cubans obtained sentences of as much as 15 years in jail for protesting extended energy cuts on the island in 2022, a human rights group stated Friday.
The ten males and three ladies had already been incarcerated for taking to the streets and demanding improved dwelling circumstances and an finish to energy outages — some lasting as much as 18 hours — within the city of Nuevitas, 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Havana.
On Friday, they had been notified that their sentences would vary from 4 to fifteen years in jail for sedition, contempt, enemy propaganda and sabotage, amongst different expenses, based on an inventory offered to AFP by Miami-based NGO Justicia 11J.
All 13 had been tried in January 2024 by a Camaguey metropolis court docket, beneath heavy navy and police presence, the Cubalex NGO, additionally based mostly in Miami, reported on the time.
“My son is doing very badly,” the mom of a 23-year-old man sentenced to 10 years in jail, advised AFP by phone, asking to not be recognized.
In accordance with Justicia 11J, these convicted can nonetheless enchantment their sentences.
Cuba’s power scarcity sparked each day energy outages and one of many island’s most tough years in 2022.
Anti-government demonstrations just like the one in Nuevitas have turn out to be extra widespread in Cuba, regardless of the chance of arrest and extreme penalties incurred by protesters.
A whole bunch of individuals had been arrested in the course of the historic demonstrations of July 11, 2021, and practically 500 had been sentenced to as much as 25 years in jail, based on the newest official figures.
