The Prosecution Requests Long Sentences for Sonia Garro, her husband Ramon Alejandro Munoz, and Eugenio Hernández

The Prosecution Requests Long Sentences for Sonia Garro, her husband
Ramon Alejandro Munoz, and Eugenio Hernández / Diario de Cuba
Posted on September 17, 2013

Cuban prosecutors have requested long prison sentences for Lady in White
Sonia Garro Alfonso, her husband the activist Ramón Alejandro Muñoz
González and the also dissident Eugenio Hernández Hernández, according
to the independent Center for Information Hablemos Press.

According to statements by Muñoz González from Havana's prison Combinado
del Este where he is being held, the regime has asked for 12 in prison
for him, 10 for Garro and 11 for Hernández on charges of "assault,
disorderly conduct and attempted murder."

There are conflicting reports regarding the sentences for these
opposition activists. Other sources within the internal dissidence state
12 years for Garro and 14 for her husband.

Muñoz claimed to have in his hands the document produced by the
prosecution on Hernández's case on which the sentence requests for the
other accused also appear.

The three dissents have been remanded in custody since March 2012. If
the sentences become true, these would be among the longest imposed on
dissidents since the imprisonment of the Group of 75 in the spring of 2003.

Garro and Muñoz were arrested during a violent police operation in which
the authorities used Special Troops and rubber bullets. The Lady in
White was injured in one leg.

Muñoz said that the Prosecution accuses her of attacking a female police
officer and shouting "Down with Fidel and Raul." He is accused of
throwing a television set at a member of the commando that raided his home.

"That is a lie. That is not true. They arrived shooting into the house.
At no moment did we injure anyone. We were the injured," replied Muñoz.

"[They did] Not prove that there was (a murder) attempt. There was an
attempt, but from them on us. The only murderers here are the Castro
brothers," he said.

He reckoned that the requests for long sentences show that "they (the
rulers) will never forgive the fact that there are men that fight for
Cuba's freedom."

"The dictatorship has retaliated against peaceful fighters, defenders of
human rights […] I think this is one of the greatest injustices against
the opposition in the last few years," said Muñoz.

"We are fighters, and we will continue to be, no matter how long we are
in prison," he assured us.

During the year and a half that they have spent in prison, both Muñoz
and Garro have been the victims of beatings and other punishments by the
authorities and by common prisoners egged on by the former. Both have
passed through punishment cells.

Last month, the Lady in White received a beating by four prison guards
that were subsequently suspended.

Activists and relatives have requested in numerous occasions, to no
avail, that they be declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty
International.

Translated by Ernesto Ariel Suarez

From Diario de Cuba

17 September 2013

Source: "The Prosecution Requests Long Sentences for Sonia Garro, her
husband Ramon Alejandro Munoz, and Eugenio Hernández / Diario de Cuba |
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