Cuban citizen threatened and fined for trying to file a complaint against a state agent



Mr. Lazaro Luis Guilarte demonstrated in the doorway of his house because the direction of commerce determined that whoever did not participate in the parade on May 1st, would be sanctioned and discounted one working day. Officer Brian Torres Urgelles, with his brother and another police officer were testing Mr. Guilarte, until they beat him. Later, these three people entered his home, and his brother, Luis Miguel Almeida, came out in his defense. When he and his father went to the Ministry of the Interior delegation to file a complaint against those who had violated his home, he was told that if he maintained the complaint against an officer, the police would prosecute him for resistance and assault on an officer. In addition, Mr. Almeida an other family members were fined $30 Cuban pesos (£1) for public scandal and he was suggested to remove his name as "a name of a counter-revolutionary”.


Rights Abused

Civil and Political Rights
Right to effective legal remedy
Freedom of opinion and expression
Inviolability of the home
Economic and Social Rights
Right to property
Perpetrator
Police
Ministry of the Interior
Political police
JKOI/79