Manuel David Orrio, Cooperativa de Periodistas Independientes
HAVANA, January 28 - Supporters of independent journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo prepare to put the Cuban judicial system in check after the Provincial Tribunal in Pinar del Río ratified a six-month-sentence for presumably having committed the crimes of speculation and hoarding.
Legal experts in Havana called the sanction imposed on the journalist a flagrant illegality and advised asking for a revision, basing their opinion in that the facts of the case do not constitute a crime, one of the causes provided by the law to file recourse.
The process of revision may be solicited by any person or entity from the Minister of Justice, the President of the Supreme Popular Tribunal or the Prosecuting Attorney of the Republic, and must be answered by any of these within 90 days. In the event of an affirmative reply, an investigation
has to be carried out in which Arroyo has the right to name an attorney.
Arroyo was sentenced on January 14 after acquiring some 200 toys in the dollar stores in Pinar del Río with the intention to distribute them among poor children as part of a civil, humanitarian project called the Three Wise Kings of the Millennium.
According to official documents and the testimony of those present at the trial, the conditions for the crimes of speculation and hoarding are not present, since an edict by the Prosecuting Attorney of the Republic considers "contradictory and counterproductive" the limitation of sales
in the dollar stores -the ones where Arroyo bought the toys- and because there was no proof of an intention to profit which would be necessary to demonstrate speculation.
Castro's opponents and Pinar del Río residents linked to the Catholic Church in the province, in which Arroyo participates, say that the sanction is really retaliation meant to silence the independent journalist, whose work is considered a problem by the authorities there. Amnesty
International has already declared him a prisoner of conscience.
Even though the pessimists think that the revision will not prosper, they consider it convenient as a final judicial step that should be taken to either secure the liberty of the journalist or prove the intention to violate the law by the government of Fidel Castro, given the unjust character of
the sentence. In this sense, the Cuban justice system would be put in check at the highest levels, which condemned the authors of the document "The Fatherland Belongs to All" in the name of a peculiar legality,
but legality after all.
Other analysts figure that the revision could be successful, taking into account that judicial processes like Arroyo's happen as a consequence of the doings of local interests, which contradict certain strategies of the central power. "Provincial stupidity is one of the headaches of the
government of Fidel Castro. The Arroyo affair could create difficulties between Havana and the Vatican, given the religious persecution aspect of the case. But it seems that in Pinar del Río they didn't even think of that," said one observer, connected to the National Assembly in Havana.
Independent journalists in Havana criticized their colleague in Pinar del Río for having commited what they called a "tactical error." Arroyo got involved in a civil project, when his mission was strictly to report it and, in a certain sense, he became the victim of a
professional conflict of interest that may have antagonized the provincial authorities.
Notwithstanding, they are the main proponents of soliciting the revision. For the time being, the chess game has started and bystanders ask themselves, Is there a check in the horizon? |