The United Nations (UN) recently accused the Cuban regime for “serious systemic violations of due process” on the Island, the NGO Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported this Monday.
“United Nations fosters hope for release of political prisoners in Cuba”celebrated the institution, in charge of the complaint presented on the subject in July 2023 before the global entity and which motivated the accusatory letter signed by six UN rapporteurs.
According to a PD report, the complaint is based on the lack of independent lawyers in Cuba, the deprivation of liberty without judicial protection, the dependence of prosecutors and judges on political power, the State’s experts and witnesses as the only source of accusation. , the criminalization of the exercise of fundamental rights, military courts and summary cases. These would be, in PD’s opinion, “the main violations” of the regime to due process“to which is added the denial of freedom of association,” added the NGO.
According to the PD report, the cuban regime systematically violates due process to violate “the rights of all those considered ‘disaffected to the Revolution’whether or not they are human rights activists, whether they are protesters or not.” It is “a situation that affects each and every one of the criminal cases in Cuba and, in particular, the more than 1,500 political prisoners that PD has documented since only 2021”, highlighted the organization.
“The information received is sufficiently reliable to indicate that there is a matter that warrants immediate attention,” the signatories of the UN letter signed.
For his part, Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders, expressed “PD’s commitment to continue working to eradicate the procedural framework of violation of the rights of all those prosecuted, convicted and political prisoners and conscience in Cuba”.
“The organizations active in legal defense against the arbitrariness committed against thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Cuba, and the rapporteurs themselves, continue working to make transparent and denounce the lack of due process in Cuba“PD stressed.
In this sense, the accusatory letter added: “We wish to inform your Excellency’s Government that after having transmitted the information contained in this communication to the Government, he Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions could also refer a case [multitudinario, por primera vez en su historia] through its ordinary procedure in order to rule on whether the deprivations of liberty were arbitrary or not. This communication does not in any way prejudge the opinion that the Working Group may issue. “The Government is obliged to respond separately to the letter of allegation and to the ordinary procedure.”
“We consider that the public needs to be informed about the potential implications related to the above allegations. The press release will indicate that we have been in contact with Your Excellency’s Government to clarify the relevant issues,” the letter concluded.
Although the rapporteurs were explicit with the condemnation, It does not appear on the UN website that the Cuban Government has responded within the deadline60 days, so it is assumed that such a response has not been produced, since it would be mandatory for the Special Procedures to have published the response.
