Adrián Curuneaux Stivens has been sentenced to four years for assault and aggravated contempt in addition to a previous sentence of four years for assault and battery.
14ymedio, Havana, 9 September 2024 — Activist Adrián Curuneaux Stivens, who was arrested after attempting to visit Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara in Havana’s Calixto García hospital in May 2021, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for two crimes of attempted assault and one of aggravated contempt. The sentence, to which CubaNet had access this Sunday, was issued after the trial he was subjected to in July.
According to the document, Curuneaux Stivens tried to enter the healthcare center, where the artist and leader of the San Isidro Movement – “with whom he had no relationship or friendship”, the text specifies – was being held after a hunger strike, and the employees explained to him that visits were not allowed because of the restrictions at the time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The activist “ignored them and began to get agitated,” states the sentence.
When some policemen who were on the scene approached him and asked him for his ID, Curuneaux, 52 years old, began to record them, which is why they decided to detain him and transfer him to the nearest police station. Despite his being subdued and handcuffed, the two policemen involved, who identified themselves as Cristhian Damian Urquiza Fernandez and Diosbel Barreras Abad, claim that the activist assaulted them.
The activist is accused of ripping off the button of the right epaulette of the uniform worn by a policeman who was trying to subdue him
Once inside the police car, according to the policemen’s version, the activist began to kick Urquiza Fernandez, who was sitting next to him in the back of the vehicle, “without causing him any injuries and without causing any damage to the acrylic that divides the back from the front”.
To be able to subdue