Economist Karina Gálvez Released On Bail, After Six Days Of Arrest

Economist Karina Gálvez Released On Bail, After Six Days Of Arrest /
14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2017 — On Tuesday night, economist Karina
Gálvez was released after her family paid a bond of 2,000 Cuban
pesos. The editor of the magazine Convivencia (Coexistence) thanked the
solidarity of all those who denounced her arrest on 11 January,
according to her statements to 14ymedio.

The activist met with her family and friends outside the place where she
was detained, at kilometer four and a half pn the road to San Juan, in
Pinar del Rio. The authorities did not inform her of an upcoming date
for questioning or trial.

Gálvez's release took place a few hours before Dagoberto Valdés,
director of the independent publication, was subjected to an
interrogation about the accusations against Galvez.

"Major Odalys led me to an interrogation room with a video camera,"
Valdés said at midday. "There she told me that if I lied I could be
charged with perjury." The official told him that he had been summoned
to State Security headquarters – at four and a half kilometers on the
road to San Juan, Pinar del Río- for being "a witness to an economic
crime that has nothing to do with the project of the Coexistence Study
Center."

However, Attorney Wilfredo Vallín, president of the Cuban Legal
Association, says that "it is the court that must have the last word
about whether or not a statement is true and whether it is a perjury
offense." So "the law gives the person the opportunity to change his
statement as often as he understands, but the final statement will be
the one he makes before the court."

The major repeated questions similar to those asked of Karina's sister,
Livia Gálvez, on Monday, and another member of the publication's team,
Idael Márquez, summoned last Saturday. The interrogation happened in the
same place where the economist is being held and where Valdes was
interviewed by the police last October and, warned that his life was
going to be made "very difficult."

"Are you aware of the legal procedures around the sale of Karina's
property? Did you accompany her to the notary's office to do the
paperwork? How much money was given to complete the payment for the
house?" These were among the questions asked by the director of the
magazine Convivencia, who answered that he knew "absolutely nothing."

The official blamed Valdés for being behind the transaction to acquire
the property, an accusation that the layman rejected, urging the
official to define whether the case was an "economic crime" or a charge
with "political connotations," related to the peaceful activism that the
members of the Convivencia team maintain from the city of Pinar del Río.

"You have to participate as a witness in the trial," Odalys told him, an
assertion that has raised alarms over a possible cancellation of the
right to leave the country for Valdés and other members of the
team. Something that could negatively influence the presence of the
members of the Coexistence Study Center during the upcoming meeting
about education in Cuba scheduled for 28 and 29 in Miami, Florida.

Source: Economist Karina Gálvez Released On Bail, After Six Days Of
Arrest / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/economist-karina-galvez-released-on-bail-after-six-days-of-arrest-14ymedio/