Cuba said dissident would get fair trial. Then the Justice Ministry called him a “criminal”
The Cuban government vowed that one of the island’s best-known dissidents, José Daniel Ferrer, who faces assault charges, would have a fair trial, after activists said the allegations were false and the accusation politically motivated.
Then, on the same day of the trial, the Ministry of Justice declared that Ferrer was “a criminal.”
That was not the only irregularity linked to the trial, which was held behind closed doors in Santiago de Cuba on Wednesday and lasted more than 12 hours. The court will announce the verdict on March 12, Ferrer’s relatives told the Miami Herald.
A man identified as Sergio García accused Ferrer and three other members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, known as UNPACU after its name in Spanish, of having beaten him and kidnapped him at one of the houses used by the dissident organization last September.
The prosecution asked the judge to sentence Ferrer to nine years for causing minor injuries to Garcia and for “deprivation of liberty.”
But activists and family members have denounced that Ferrer’s imprisonment is due to his criticism of the government and his political activities as the head of UNPACU.
The case against him “is a show,” Ferrer’s wife, Nelva Ortega, told the Miami Herald. Ortega has been arrested several times for protesting the imprisonment of her husband since October 1.
Speaking from Santiago de Cuba, Ortega recounted some of the irregularities during the trial, including a room full of state security agents and that judge presiding over the case banned the use of words such as “opposition” and “UNPACU.” Several defense witnesses were threatened and told not to testify, she said.
Ortega also said that throughout the process, García has changed his story at least four times and that several witnesses said at trial that they had seen him leave the UNPACU house the morning after the alleged incident without visible injuries.
The prosecution presented witnesses who heard screaming, but none that had witnessed the alleged beating or had seen García’s injuries, Ortega said.
According to her description of the arguments presented, the police officer investigating the case said that the dissidents had inflicted “severe injuries” on García. But the defense lawyer appointed by the Cuban government questioned why García didn’t seek treatment immediately. A medical expert testified that such severe injuries would have required urgent treatment.
And the judge presiding over the court did not allow the defense to present audio of a phone call in which García’s wife stated that he had told her that the injuries were due to a motorcycle accident. He also told her that state security agents were pressing him to accuse Ferrer.
Other dissidents on trial said that García showed up drunk at the UNPACU house, verbally threatened them and took to the streets to shout anti-government slogans. One of the four men accused, Roilán Zárraga Ferrer, stated that it was his idea to keep García tied to a bed with pieces of cloth until the effects of the alcohol passed, Ortega said.
The Miami Herald could not verify the account of the trial independently, but the government could broadcast video of the proceedings, which was recorded by three cameras, Ortega said.
Ferrer’s brother, Luis Enrique, who lives in Miami, said he had been in communication with the relatives of the detainees and confirmed several of the main details in Ortega’s statement. The organization Prisoners Defenders also published a similar account of the trial based on the testimony of the relatives attending the hearing.
The trial against Ferrer has sparked international condemnation.
On Thursday, the European Union issued a statement criticizing the Cuban authorities for violating Ferrer’s “constitutional rights” before the trial. The available information suggests that he is being prosecuted “for the peaceful expression of his views,” the statement said.
The government held Ferrer for more than a month without filing charges, which violates Cuban laws. A habeas corpus appeal for his release was also denied.
The EU delegation in Cuba and Amnesty International requested access to the trial but received no response from the island’s government.
“We expect Cuba to review, as a matter of urgency, all cases of incarceration related to the exercise of fundamental rights, and to release all those concerned, in line with Cuba’s international commitments,” the EU said in the statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also sent a letter on Monday to Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez asking for Ferrer’s immediate release.
But Ortega does not have much hope that the court will acquit the dissidents.
“If this were nothing more than a show, if justice were done... if they dare to broadcast the full trial proceedings, it will show that they are innocent,” she said. “But in Cuba, there is no division of powers.”
The government has carried out an aggressive campaign against Ferrer on state media, accusing him of receiving orders from the U.S. embassy in Havana. A video broadcast on state television included images apparently showing an imprisoned Ferrer hitting himself against a table and then accusing a guard of hitting him.
On the same day of the trial, Cuba’s Ministry of Justice said on Twitter that the dissident “will have a fair trial in which he will be guaranteed due process, which is more than what the man he severely beat and kidnapped got. ”
The ministry’s official account added that Ferrer “is a common criminal, not a political prisoner” and included the hashtag #FerrerInPrisonForCriminal.
The account also retweeted several accounts peddling government propaganda and calling Ferrer “a mercenary” and a “vulgar felon.”
On Thursday, all the messages had disappeared from the ministry’s Twitter account.
Follow Nora Gámez Torres on Twitter: @ngameztorres
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 3:10 PM.