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Alert

RSF urges E.U. to freeze Cuba's application for membership in Cotonou Agreement further to sentencing of independent journalists

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has denounced what it termed a "travesty of justice" in which independent journalists in Cuba were handed down stiff jail sentences.


"In these trials of independent journalists and opposition figures that opened on 3 April, you see all the ingredients of Stalinist trials: closed-door sessions, summary justice, denial of the right to a defence, evidence from infiltrators, files built up over months, statements from neighbours, charges related solely to holding dissenting opinions.

"The only thing lacking is self-criticism on the part of the defendants," said Robert Ménard, the organisation's secretary-general, who renewed his appeal to the European Union (E.U.) to freeze Cuba's application for membership in the Cotonou Agreement, made in January 2003 (1).

"The European Union must send a strong signal that it objects to the current crackdown", Ménard said, recalling that closer relations between the E.U. and Cuba are officially dependent on respect for human rights in the country, and that in December 2002 the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Human Rights Prize to Cuban dissident Osvaldo Paya.

According to early reports received by RSF, Raúl Rivero, managing editor of the Cuba Press agency and winner of the RSF-Fondation de France prize in 1997, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on 7 April 2003.

The sentence had been sought by the public prosecutor at the end of a summary trial held on 4 April. The same sentence was handed down to Ricardo González, a correspondent for RSF and Cuba's first dissident review. The prosecutor had sought a life sentence against González. Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who worked for the Internet site cubanet.org, and Hector Maseda, of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, were also handed 20-year sentences.

"This was a show trial. Everything was decided in advance," said Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes. Rivero was among 78 dissidents who were arrested by the authorities between 18 and 24 March, of whom 24 were independent journalists. According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, 71 dissidents were tried between 3 and 5 April. The trials lasted no longer than one day. All were charged with carrying out "activities against the integrity and sovereignty of the state", in collaboration with James Cason, who heads the United States (U.S.) Interests Section, the official U.S. representation in Havana.

"It was a show trial that was in the works for a long time," said Julia Nuñez, wife of Adolfo Fernández Sainz, of the press agency Pátria, whose trial was held on 3 April. For her part, after the hearing, Miriam Leyva, wife of Espinosa Chepe, termed the trial a "complete farce." "It was a complete set-up, the jail sentences were written down well before the trial," she said. Espinosa Chepe reportedly told the court that that he had not been informed that his trial was being held and was only expecting to be interrogated when he was brought from his cell.

According to Reyes, Rivero and González, who were tried together before a Havana court on 4 April, only met their lawyer on the eve of the hearing. Victor Rolando Arroyo, a correspondent for the UPECI agency in Pinar del Río, southwest of Havana, chose not to hire a lawyer because he was convinced that his sentence had been decided in advance. A state-appointed lawyer represented him at his 3 April trial.

No members of the international press or diplomats were admitted to the courts. According to the Internet site cubanet.org, at Artemisa, southwest of Havana, aside from the defendants' family members, only Communist Party activists were allowed to attend the trials of journalists José Ubaldo Gutiérrez, of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, and Miguel Galván, of Havana Press. State security agents patrolled the neighbourhood outside the courts.

According to Reyes, Rivero and González were accused at their trial of writing "against the government," meeting Cason and organising "subversive meetings" at their homes. They were also accused of collaborating with RSF, "a French terrorist organisation manipulated by the United States government", and with the Madrid-based Hispano-Cuban Foundation, also termed "terrorist", and accused of being linked to the U.S.. "I do not plot, I write," Rivero said at his trial, which was filmed by official Cuban television.

Eight witnesses gave evidence for the prosecution, including two well-known dissident journalists, Manuel David Orrio and Nestor Baguer, who have admitted to being state security agents who infiltrated the ranks of the independent press. Baguer accused Rivero of being an alcoholic. The other witnesses, neighbours of the two defendants, said they had seen the two journalists being visited in their homes by foreign diplomats or holding subversive meetings there.

The agents who infiltrated the independent journalists were also witnesses in the trials of Espinosa Chepe and Hector Maseda, who were tried together on 3 April, and of Mario Enrique Mayo, publisher of the Félix Varela news agency in Camagüey, eastern Cuba. According to Mayo's wife, Maydelin Guerra, the informer said he accompanied the journalist to the U.S. Interests Section, where he went to use the Internet.

1. The Cotonou Accords link 77 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations (known as the ACP Group) to the E.U. in a preferential commercial and economic aid agreement.