Cuba has granted early launch to 553 prisoners, finishing a deal struck within the closing days of Joe Biden‘s US presidency that his successor Donald Trump later deserted, a Supreme Court official mentioned Monday.
“The process was successfully completed,” the courtroom’s vp Maricela Soza Ravelo mentioned on state tv, noting that 378 functions had been filed in January and 175 in February.
In considered one of his closing official acts, Biden on January 14 eliminated Cuba from a US checklist of state terror sponsors in return for the communist island agreeing to free 553 prisoners.
But six days later marked the swearing-in of Trump, who swiftly overturned the Vatican-mediated deal after simply 192 confirmed releases of individuals dubbed “political prisoners” by rights teams.
Most had been rounded up in a crackdown on uncommon mass protests towards the Cuban authorities in July 2021.
The prisoner releases stopped after Trump’s order, however then resumed sporadically within the ensuing weeks, in line with a number of human rights teams.
Cuban authorities have by no means made public a listing of the prisoners being launched, nor a timetable.
The courtroom’s vp mentioned the discharge of the prisoners might be revoked, including that they had been required to “maintain social behavior in accordance with our socialist norms.”
– Demands for transparency –
According to the “Todos” platform, which collates data from a number of non-governmental organizations, 212 folks have been launched, together with opposition chief Jose Daniel Ferrer and dissident Felix Navarro.
Ferrer was probably the most high-profile of 127 prisoners launched in January, days earlier than Trump returned to the White House.
Dissident artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Maykel Osorbo, who’ve been sentenced to 5 and 7 years in jail, respectively, haven’t been launched.
Rapper Osorbo, co-author of the anti-government protests anthem “Patria y Vida” (“Homeland and Life”), was arrested in May 2021 and convicted of disorderly conduct, contempt of courtroom and assault.
Two moms of different prisoners advised AFP that their sons had not been launched.
The Mexico-based NGO Justicia 11J, named after the date of the 2021 protests, expressed concern on Monday, saying that they had obtained studies suggesting that “a significant portion of those released are common prisoners” reasonably than political prisoners.
“We demand transparency and accountability regarding this process. We urge international actors and human rights organizations to act urgently and to demand from the Cuban state the official list of beneficiaries, with clear information on the selection criteria,” it added.
According to official figures, round 500 demonstrators arrested over the July 2021 protests have been sentenced, in some instances to as much as 25 years in jail.
Some have already been launched after serving their sentences.
Human rights NGOs and the US embassy in Havana estimate that there are round 1,000 political prisoners on the island.
Source: www.anews.com.tr