Cuban Opposition Activist Perseveres to Defend the Rights of the Cuban People
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Cuban opposition activist Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera.

Placetas. Cuban Democratic Directorate. August 20, 2008. Cuban opposition activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera reported that she intends to appeal a decision reached today by the People’s Municipal Tribunal of Placetas concerning an incident ocurred on August 3, 2008.

“I have no reason to pay a fine if I have committed no crime… My only crime, according to them, was to have defended Melquíades Hernández, a young man who was bleeding profusely, and on top of that, they were beating him,” stated Pérez Aguilera today by telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Pérez Aguilera is maintaining her complete innocence of the charges of “resistance” and “contempt” with which she the National Revolutionary Police (NRP) intends to punish her for having interceded to defend the rights of Melquíades Hernández, the young victim of a brutal beating by the NRP on the streets of Placetas on August 3.

During a trial held this morning at the People’s Municipal Tribunal of Placetas in Villa Clara province, the activist was supported by Yaité Diaznegui Cruz Sosa, a resident of Placetas and eyewitness to the events of August 3. Cruz Sosa, who is not a member of any opposition organization, testified that Pérez Aguilera had been the victim of repression, and had not committed any crime.

According to the sentence imposed by the tribunal today, Iris will be forced to pay a total of 500 Cuban pesos or serve 250 days in prison (8 months and 10 days) under articles 143.1 and 144.1 of the penal code*. The tribunal that handed down the sentence was presided over by Hugo Benavides Díaz.  The day of the incident, Major Vilmariño of the NRP responded to Pérez Aguilera’s humanitarian effort with physical attacks, racist insults, arbitrary detention, and the leveling of these charges.

The opposition activist also enjoyed the support of about forty human rights activists from several parts of Cuba who managed to gather in Placetas to hold a peaceful march to the tribunal and to attend the trial.

The day of the incident, PNR officers slammed Pérez Aguilera against a police vehicle, calling her a “f------ black,” a “black monkey,” and later told her that what they needed was "an order to kill all these f------ blacks who stick their noses into everything," according to Pérez Aguilera’s husband, former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez.”

*Editor’s note (unofficial translation from Law 62, Cuban penal code):

Resistance- ARTICLE 143.1. One who offers resistance to an authority, a public functionary or their agents or auxiliaries in the course of the exercise of their functions incurs the penalty of imprisonment for three months to one year or a fine of 100 to 300 installments [of 2 Cuban pesos].

Contempt- ARTICLE 144.1. One who threatens, libels, defames, insults, slanders or in any other way outrages or offends, whether verbally or written, the dignity or decorum of an authority, a public functionary, or their agents or auxiliaries in the course of the exercise of their functions, or on occasion or by cause of them, incurs the penalty of imprisonment for three months to one year or a fine of 100 to 300 installments [of 2 Cuban pesos] or both.

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Directorio Democrático Cubano
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In Memory of Mario Manuel de la Peña