HAVANA TIMES – Roberto Perez Fonseca was sentenced to ten years in prison for ripping up a portrait of Fidel Castro during the protests in San Jose de las Lajas, Mayabeque, in July 2021.
The case against him was built on the Police report from officer Jorge Luis Garcia Montero, a.k.a. “Rompehuesos” (Bone-breaker). In the middle of the protest, Garcia Montero beat a young man while dragging him to a patrol car and Roberto Perez cried out: “Thug, killer, leave him alone!”
Meanwhile, the officer said that on July 11th, Roberto had led a mob of violent citizens armed with “bottles and stones”, that he’d hit him in the wrist with a rock, and then threw another big stone against a police patrol car “causing damage”.
At the trial which took place on September 28, 2021, there were police officers with dogs and several members of the riot police outside the court to keep watch. According to Liset Fonseca, the prisoner of conscience’s mother, Officer Garcia Montero – known as a violent man in the town because he takes advantage of his position to blackmail small private businesses – “said that he felt very offended by the words Roberto shouted at him on July 11th, that nobody had stood up to him like that before. He added that he was the only one he recognized amidst the crowd and identified the defendant as the leader of the protest and instigator of acts of vandalism against police officers and MLC (US dollar priced) stores. When the defense asked him if he at least remembered what the defendant was wearing that day, Garcia Montero failed to answer.”
In the beginning, Roberto’s mother was convinced that her son would be acquitted, and the defense would win the case because there wasn’t any incriminating evidence. According to the court minutes published by Yucabyte, there were statements in the pre-trial phase from three witnesses present at the time and place of the event, who said that Roberto never threw stones. The court rejected their witness statements with the excuse that they could be “inadmissible”, and the defense proposed another four more witnesses instead. The court cut the list to half the witnesses; both were Roberto’s relatives. Their statements were dismissed during the trial because they “showed complete bias in the defendant’s favor.”
Police officer Garcia was the only witness and plaintiff, but the alleged stones Roberto threw weren’t dealt with or described at any point in the trial, and the patrol car and police officer’s body showed no signs of assault. On the other hand, the medical certificate presented by Garcia had a date that was determined illegible, and it didn’t have the stamp from the health center that issued it.
The defense presented a viral video on social media as the last piece of evidence, a video in which you can see the exact moment Roberto stood up to the police. The video showed Roberto practically on his own and not leading a crowd, like the official had said, and he only exchanged words with the police officer before walking off. The court dismissed the evidence because “it had been saved on a USB stick” and not on a DVD, as Cuban legal specifications stipulate.
Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented evidence based on witness statements from “trusted individuals”, who said Roberto “has a negative social attitude, as he doesn’t take part in the work carried out by mass organizations” and that “he likes to brag and speculate.” According to an article in the press, they contradicted