CUBA: DISSIDENT SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON скачать в хорошем качестве

CUBA: DISSIDENT SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON

(15 Mar 1999) Spanish/Nat Risking international criticism, authorities in Cuba sentenced one of their best-known dissidents to five years in prison Monday with lesser terms for three co-defendents. A five-member tribunal tried Roca and three others behind closed doors the first week of March. The court set sentences of four years each for lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano and engineer Felix Bonne and three-and-a-half years for economist Marta Beatriz Roque. A recent trial in Cuba that has attracted widespread international concern closed Monday with four verdicts made public in the midday news. The stiffest sentence, of five years, was given to Vladimiro Roca - a former military pilot and son of the late Cuban Communist Party leader Blas Roca. UPSOUND: (Spanish) "The main defendant Vladimiro Roca was sentenced to five years in prison. René Gómenz Manzano, Félix Bonne to four years, and Marta Beatriz Roque to three and a half years." SUPER CAPTION: News reader Roca's wife - Magaly de Armas - announced that the family will appeal. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "With respect to Vladimiro, he has been given a sentence one year lower than expected but in spite of this, we do not agree and are going to appeal." SUPER CAPTION: Magaly de Armas, wife of Vladimiro Roca A five-member tribunal tried Roca and three others behind closed doors at the beginning of the month. The trial was televised and frequently, all four were accused of placing Cuba's revolution in severe danger, through their pamphleteering and outspoken fight for democracy. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "They wanted to disgrace the image of these four people but from my point of view I don't think they have managed to do this. The comments you hear in the street and the people who come here and speak, I don't think they have discredited their image. Quite the opposite. A lot of people come asking for the document "La Patria de Todos" because they want to read it. They want to see the content." SUPER CAPTION: Magaly de Armas, wife of Vladimiro Roca Those supporters of the four convicted have vowed to continue their fight. The four were arrested in July 1997 for criticising a Communist Party document, for encouraging Cubans not to vote in that year's elections, for holding two news conferences with foreign media, and exhorting foreign businessmen not to invest in Cuba. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "Although he is in jail, I will continue to say he is wrongly jailed. That he must be set free and we will go on fighting for this and not because of this is he going to stop being president of the Social Democratic Party. Even if he is put in prison for five years he will continue to be the president and the organisation will continue to be behind him." SUPER CAPTION: Magaly de Armas, wife of Vladimiro Roca The sentences could hold international repercussions for Cuba, which has worked to improve its ties with other nations, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America. Canada, the Vatican and several European nations pressured Cuba to free the four dissidents. But communist officials insist there are no political prisoners on this island nation of 11 (m) million people, only those jailed for common crimes. Also on Monday a man accused of six bombings in Havana went on trial. Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena confessed his guilt, as his father and mother-in-law watched from the front row. Rodriguez Llerena was arrested on July 10, 1998, at Havana's international airport as he tried to bring more than one and a half kilogrammes of explosives into Cuba. no injuries. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...