381 people sanctioned in Cuba for crimes in July riots

So far 381 people have been sanctioned in Cuba for crimes of sedition, sabotage, robbery with force, violence, attack, contempt of court and public disorder in the riots that took place last July, Granma newspaper reported today.

According to the national newspaper, 297 defendants received prison sentences, due to the seriousness and circumstances in which the events occurred and their personal conduct.

For the crime of sedition, 36 were sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison. Meanwhile, 84 defendants had their sentences of deprivation of liberty changed to alternative penalties that do not imply in principle, under the condition of good conduct, their imprisonment. In this sense, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic decided to incorporate them to correctional work with and without imprisonment, and limitation of freedom, a decision in which 15 of the 16 young people between 16 and 18 years old are included.

According to the source, in the sentences the People’s Courts declared in each case the civil liability to compensate the persons who were injured as a consequence of the facts and the compensation of the damages caused to the entities.

It is now up to them to start the process of executing the final decisions imposed and to ensure compliance with their educational, coercive and preventive purposes, the reinforcement of values, the rectification of the behavior of the convicted persons and their social reinsertion, noted the source.

Of the total, 76 sentences became final, once the term for the defendants or the prosecutor to file appeals against the verdicts issued, in the exercise of their rights had elapsed, according to the media that quoted the Prosecutor’s Office.