This Monday, the Matanzas Provincial Court rejected the appeal brought by the Cuban intellectual. Alina Barbara Lopez HernandezAfter being convicted of “disobedience” and sentenced to pay a fine, in November.
The ruling, accessible to DIARIO DE CUBA, considered that López Hernández was “not right” and the head of the department that sent the police summons to the historian and columnist, despite the fact that he had violated legal regulations and the Cuban constitution. .
The Cuban academic is not subject to any judicial process or subject to any investigation When quoted, is in progress. However, according to the ruling issued on January 22, department head Lisandra Barzaga Sanchez acted “legally”.
The ruling, signed by judges Yoel Quinta Arango (Rapporteur Judge), Ramon Pontigo Arteaga and Leoncio Armando Valls Díaz, affirmed the actions of the officer, arguing that his powers “include the characteristic obligation to proactively participate in preventive measures of social prevention”. The possibility of carrying out interviews, speeches, calls for attention or other measures for preventive purposes.
Lopez Hernandez denied that argument Penal Code Approved in Cuba in 2022, approved in 2022, in a message posted on Facebook this Thursday. The academic described the arguments made by the judges as “shameful” and “clumsy”.
Commenting on the verdict in his post, the author pointed out that he did not know what to interview when the aforementioned department head called him. Regarding the “preventive task of social prevention” included in the officer's powers, López Hernández highlighted that “while approving the new Penal Code, removing 'dangerous condition' as a crime and recognizing the presumption of innocence is progress.”
“However, The Cuban government has a repressive nature determined by the structure of its political system.It is discriminatory, based on a state ideology based on one party and criminalizing dissent as a right of a citizen,” he noted.
“It doesn't matter if it tries to cover it up with a constitution that declares the rule of law and establishes the rights and guarantees of citizens, a new penal code is said to be an improvement compared to its predecessor, new concepts and false speeches. This sentence is another. An example that convincingly proves that nothing has changed,” he said.
Alina Barbara Lopez was fined 250 Cuban pesos in 30 installments on November 28, 2023.A total of 7,500 have been barred from leaving the country until they prove they have paid the fine.
The intellectual was supported by hundreds of intellectuals inside and outside of Cuba. In December, after pressure from its members, The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) condemned it “Political repression in Cuba and especially recently against the Cuban historian and intellectual Alina López Hernández.“, who is part of that system.
