Havana, Cuba, Aug 3, 2021 / 11:19 am (CNA).
Participants in last month’s protests of Cuba’s communist government are facing summary trials without adequate legal aid, a Jesuit priest serving in Havana said last week.
Following last month’s protests summary trials continue to be held in Cuba, which are legal and “fall under Criminal Law Procedures,” but “leave the accused without a defense,” Fr. Eduardo Llorens, a lawyer by profession, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, July 30.
Fr. Llorens, 57, is a Jesuit serving in Havana.
“The lawyer can appear in person and see the file a few moments before the trial, if the relatives manage to raise the money and find a lawyer who wants to defend the case. It’s practically impossible for the defense in such a short time to seek other evidence that exonerates his client. The witnesses (make the case against the defendant) and the police who made the arrest, many of whom don’t remember the faces of th