Police confirm that González Pérez is charged under Law 88
Organisation:
The police confirmed to Oscar Mario González Pérez's (photo) wife when she visited him on 1 August that he is charged with violating Law 88, which protects "Cuba's national independence and economy." She also reported that he is suffering from high blood pressure.
The Cubanet website has reported that the police confirmed to the wife of detained journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez when she visited him on 1 August that he is charged with violating Law 88, which protects "Cuba's national independence and economy."
Arrested at the same time as other dissidents on 22 July, González is still being held in a police station in the municipality of Playa, which is part of Havana. He is in a cell with non-political detainees, some of them murder suspects. The authorities rejected his requested to be put with other political prisoners. No date has yet been set for his trial, in which he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Aged 61, González is suffering from high blood pressure (170/100), Cubanet was told by his wife, who did not want to be named.
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28.04.2005 - Oscar Mario González Pérez faces up to 20 years in prison under Law 88
Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today on learning that independent journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, who was arrested on 22 July in Havana, is to be prosecuted under Law 88 protecting Cuba's "national independence and economy" and faces up to 20 years in prison in a sham trial. "The announcement of a trial is the same as the announcement of a conviction in Cuba," the press freedom organisation said. "González is going to join the long list of 21 journalists who have been imprisoned since March 2003 for trying to practice their trade freely and for not sharing the government's views." González was arrested at the same time as 33 other dissidents in Havana, just before a planned demonstration outside the French embassy to criticise the "normalisation" of relations between Cuba and the European Union. Nine of the 33 are still being held, including two others who are to be prosecuted under Law 88, lawyer René Gómez Manzano and political activist Julio César López. Describing the arrests as a cruel reminder of the "Black Spring" crackdown in 2003, Reporters Without Borders accused the Cuban regime of "once again revealing the full extent of its arbitrary power and paranoia" and said it was probably no coincidence that a journalist, a lawyer and a political activist have been singled out. Noting that those arrested had wanted to alert the EU about the human rights situation in Cuba, the press freedom organisation said it has written to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, which currently holds the EU presidency, asking the European Union "to reconsider its position as regards Cuba and to apply the necessary pressure so that all the dissidents are released." González's daughter Elena Isaieva, who lives in exile in the Swedish city of Uppsala, told Reporters Without Borders: "My father has been taken to four different police stations since his arrest. A Havana judge notified about his trial yesterday morning. The trial will probably be quick and the sentence will probably be heavy. My father is 61. It is as if he is going to be sentenced to death. Nonetheless, I was hoping until the last moment." No date for the trial has yet been set. When González was summoned and questioned by two state security agents in Havana on 24 March, he was threatened with never seeing his family again if he continued to work as a journalist. He was offered the chance of going to Sweden where his daughter lives, but he refused. He told Reporters Without Borders afterwards that he would not give up being a journalist and would continue to write. "That is the way he is, he will never give up," his daughter told Reporters Without Borders. Three of the journalists who have been in prison since March 2003 and who were convicted under Law 88 are members of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency. They are Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez (who is serving a 20-year prison sentence), Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández (who was sentenced to 18 years) and José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández (sentenced to 16 years). An emergency law promulgated in March 1999, Law 88 has the stated aim of "responding to the repeated attacks by the United States against Cuba's independence and sovereignty" by punishing "actions which, in accordance with imperialist interests, seek to subvert the nation's internal order and destroy its political, economic and social system." It overrides all preceding legislation and gives the regime a free hand to stifle all dissent under the pretext of resisting foreign aggression
Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today on learning that independent journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, who was arrested on 22 July in Havana, is to be prosecuted under Law 88 protecting Cuba's "national independence and economy" and faces up to 20 years in prison in a sham trial. "The announcement of a trial is the same as the announcement of a conviction in Cuba," the press freedom organisation said. "González is going to join the long list of 21 journalists who have been imprisoned since March 2003 for trying to practice their trade freely and for not sharing the government's views." González was arrested at the same time as 33 other dissidents in Havana, just before a planned demonstration outside the French embassy to criticise the "normalisation" of relations between Cuba and the European Union. Nine of the 33 are still being held, including two others who are to be prosecuted under Law 88, lawyer René Gómez Manzano and political activist Julio César López. Describing the arrests as a cruel reminder of the "Black Spring" crackdown in 2003, Reporters Without Borders accused the Cuban regime of "once again revealing the full extent of its arbitrary power and paranoia" and said it was probably no coincidence that a journalist, a lawyer and a political activist have been singled out. Noting that those arrested had wanted to alert the EU about the human rights situation in Cuba, the press freedom organisation said it has written to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, which currently holds the EU presidency, asking the European Union "to reconsider its position as regards Cuba and to apply the necessary pressure so that all the dissidents are released." González's daughter Elena Isaieva, who lives in exile in the Swedish city of Uppsala, told Reporters Without Borders: "My father has been taken to four different police stations since his arrest. A Havana judge notified about his trial yesterday morning. The trial will probably be quick and the sentence will probably be heavy. My father is 61. It is as if he is going to be sentenced to death. Nonetheless, I was hoping until the last moment." No date for the trial has yet been set. When González was summoned and questioned by two state security agents in Havana on 24 March, he was threatened with never seeing his family again if he continued to work as a journalist. He was offered the chance of going to Sweden where his daughter lives, but he refused. He told Reporters Without Borders afterwards that he would not give up being a journalist and would continue to write. "That is the way he is, he will never give up," his daughter told Reporters Without Borders. Three of the journalists who have been in prison since March 2003 and who were convicted under Law 88 are members of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency. They are Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez (who is serving a 20-year prison sentence), Omar Moisés Ruiz Hernández (who was sentenced to 18 years) and José Ubaldo Izquierdo Hernández (sentenced to 16 years). An emergency law promulgated in March 1999, Law 88 has the stated aim of "responding to the repeated attacks by the United States against Cuba's independence and sovereignty" by punishing "actions which, in accordance with imperialist interests, seek to subvert the nation's internal order and destroy its political, economic and social system." It overrides all preceding legislation and gives the regime a free hand to stifle all dissent under the pretext of resisting foreign aggression
Published on
Updated on
20.01.2016
