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Dear colleagues:
We would like to bring to your attention the case of Juan Carlos Gonzalez
Leiva, a blind Cuban lawyer, volunteer librarian and human rights defender
who is to be put on trial today, April 26. For two years Juan Carlos Gonzalez
Leiva has been unjustly imprisoned after he and a group of other people
protested the arrest of a Cuban journalist. After being brutalized and jailed for
two years under grim conditions, Juan Carlos is about to be tried for
"disrespect for authority," which can result in a prison term of six years. Soon after
his arrest, the independent library of which he is the director was raided by
the Cuban secret police, resulting in the confiscation of his library
collection, including books in Braille. Since 1998, more than 200 independent libraries
have been founded in Cuba to challenge the government's claimed monopoloy on
information, and Juan Carlos is a leader of this movement. The World Blind
Union has already expressed concern about his mistreatment
(http://www.disabilityworld.org/04-05_02/news/wbu.shtml). Details about the upcoming trial of Juan
Carlos Gonzalez Leiva are printed below in a report issued by Human Rights
Watch, the respected international human rights organization.
After reading the background information on his case, we would like to
ask you to generously consider sending a brief message about the situation of
Mr. Gonzalez Leiva to Cuban officials. We in the Friends of Cuban Libraries, a
support group for Cuban intellectual freedom activists, know from experience
that the Cuban government is concerned about its international image and is
often sensitive to criticism from abroad. If enough people around the world
protest the false and unjust charges being made against Juan Carlos, this brave and
innocent blind man may be released from custody, along with his co-defendants.
But fast action is needed to inform the Cuban government of your concern.
ACTION NEEDED: The Friends of Cuban Libraries are asking the public to
send prompt appeals to President Fidel Castro on behalf of Juan Carlos Gonzalez
Leiva and his co-defendants. Courteous appeals can be sent to President Castro
c/o the Cuban delegation to the United Nations at: ([log in to unmask])� with COPIES
to ([log in to unmask]) AND ([log in to unmask]).
Thank you for taking the time to consider this message, and please be
assured that the small amount of time needed to send a brief letter to President
Castro WILL have an impact. Your compassionate assistance in this matter will
be deeply appreciated.
Sincerely,
Robert Kent
Co-chair
The Friends of Cuban Libraries
(www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org)
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From Human Rights Watch:
Trial Violates Dissidents’ Right to Free Expression
(New York, April 22, 2004) — Cuba’s planned trial of a blind human rights
lawyer, along with nine other dissidents and independent journalists, on
charges
of “disrespect for authority” demonstrates a continuing pattern of political
repression, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch has learned
that the trial of the 10 defendants is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, April
27. [NOTE: The trial date has been changed to TODAY, April 26].
Juan Carlos González Leiva, a blind lawyer, is the president of the Cuban
Foundation for Human Rights (Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos). He and
most
of the other defendants have been held in pretrial detention in eastern
Holguín
province for more than two years.
“The upcoming trial is a travesty,” said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of
Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division. “The defendants face criminal
charges
that clearly violate their basic rights to freedom of expression.”
The defendants were arrested on March 4, 2002 at Antonio Luaces Iraola
Provincial Hospital in Ciego de Ávila (a town in central Cuba), and held
without
formal charges for six months. They are now reportedly being prosecuted for
the
crimes of disrespect to the President (desacato al Presidente), disrespect to
the police, public disorder and resistance.
Among the defendants are seven political activists (Lázaro Iglesias Estrada,
Enrique García Morejón, Antonio Marcelino García Morejón, Delio Laureano
Requejo Rodríguez, Virgilio Mantilla Arango, Odalmis Hernández Márquez, and
Ana
Peláez García) and at least two independent journalists (Léxter Téllez Castro
and
Carlos Brizuela Yera).
González Leiva, the blind lawyer, reportedly faces a six-year sentence, while
the other defendants face sentences ranging from two and a half to seven
years. The criminal indictment against González Leiva, which Human Rights
Watch
has reviewed, notes critically that “he was not integrated into mass
organizations and was not involved in any socially useful activities.”
The defendants were arrested when they visited the hospital to see an
independent journalist who had reportedly been attacked by the police earlier
in the
day while he was traveling to a meeting of the Cuban Foundation for Human
Rights. At the hospital, members of the group shouted statements such as
“Long
live human rights.” Reacting with disproportional severity to this minor
disruption, state security police arrested the group. The police reportedly
beat
González Leiva when they arrested him, leaving him with a cut on his forehead
that
required four stitches.
The denial of basic civil and political rights is written into Cuban law. A
number of criminal law provisions grant the state extraordinary power to
prosecute people who attempt to exercise basic rights to free expression,
opinion,
association, and assembly. The country’s courts also deny defendants
internationally-recognized guarantees of due process, including the right to
a public
hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.
Under Cuban law, the crime of disrespect for authority (desacato) covers
anyone who “threatens, libels or slanders, defames, affronts or in any other
way
insults or offends, with the spoken word or in writing, the dignity or
decorum
of an authority, public functionary, or his agents or auxiliaries.” Such
actions are punishable by three months to one year in prison. If the person
shows
disrespect to the president the sanction is deprivation of liberty for one to
three years.
In March 2003, police detained scores of political dissidents and others
viewed as "counter-revolutionary" in their thinking. By early April, the
Cuban
courts had sentenced 75 defendants—including such prominent figures as Raúl
Rivero, the poet and journalist, and Héctor Palacios, a leader in the
pro-democracy
movement—to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years.
Last week, on April 15, the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva passed a
resolution criticizing Cuba’s human rights practices. The resolution stated
that the Commission “deplores the events which occurred last year in Cuba,”
a
reference to the trials and sentencing of the 75 dissidents.
“The impending trial continues the repressive trend that was so glaringly
evident last year in Cuba,” Mariner said.
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