HAVANA- A Cuban activist was sentenced to three years in prison for the alleged crime of insulting symbols of the country, after publishing photographs on Facebook in which she is seen wrapped in the Cuban flag, human rights organizations reported on Friday.
“Yesterday the sentence was handed down to the activist and political prisoner Aniette González García, in which she was sentenced to 3 years of deprivation of liberty,” the Cuban Human Rights Observatory said on the social network X.
González, 44 years old and arrested in March of last year by the Castro dictatorship, had joined the initiative “The flag belongs to everyone”, in solidarity with the plastic artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, arrested during the historic demonstrations against the Cuban regime on July 11, 2021.
Amnesty International Americas also spoke out against the sanction: “We condemn the sentence of 3 years in prison against Aniette González for publishing a photo on social networks with the national flag in solidarity” with Otero Alcántara, it indicated on its X account.
“Artistic freedom should not be imprisoned,” the human rights organization demanded of dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.
González was tried in October by a court in Camagüey, a province in eastern Cuba where she resides and is being held in prison.
In June 2022, Otero Alcántara was sentenced by the Cuban dictatorship to five years in prison for the alleged crimes of insult to national symbols, contempt and public disorder.
According to official figures, nearly 500 protesters on July 11, 2021 were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
Human rights organizations and figures from the United States embassy count about 1,000 “political prisoners”, including those detained related to the 2021 marches.
Both human rights organizations and the United States, the European Union and the Catholic Church have called for the release of all political prisoners.
Source: With information from AFP
