Dissident ordered to pay fine or go to jail

Cuban Democratic Directorate has the details on what happened during today's "trial" of Cuban dissident Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera:

Placetas. Cuban Democratic Directorate. August 20, 2008. Cuban opposition activist Iris Tamara Pérez Aguilera reported today that she intends to appeal a decision reached today by the People’s Municipal Tribunal of Placetas concerning an incident ocurred on August 6, 2008.

“I have no reason to pay a fine if I have committed no crime… My only crime, according to them, was to have defended Melquíades Hernández, a young man who was bleeding profusely, and on top of that, they were beating him,” stated Pérez Aguilera today by telephone to the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Pérez Aguilera is maintaining her complete innocence of the charges of “resistance” and “contempt” with which she the National Revolutionary Police (NRP) intends to punish her for having interceded to defend the rights of Melquíades Hernández, the young victim of a brutal beating by the NRP on the streets of Placetas on August 6.

During a trial held this morning at the People’s Municipal Tribunal of Placetas in Villa Clara province, the activist was supported by Yaité Diaznegui Cruz Sosa, a resident of Placetas and eyewitness to the events of August 6. Cruz Sosa, who is not a member of any opposition organization, testified that Pérez Aguilera had been the victim of repression, and had not committed any crime.

According to the sentence imposed by the tribunal today, Iris will be forced to pay a total of 500 Cuban pesos or serve 250 days in prison (8 months and 10 days) under articles 143.1 and 144.1 of the penal code. The tribunal that handed down the sentence was presided over by Hugo Benavides Díaz. The day of the incident, Major Vilmariño of the NRP responded to Pérez Aguilera’s humanitarian effort with physical attacks, racist insults, arbitrary detention, and the leveling of these charges.

The opposition activist also enjoyed the support of about forty human rights activists from several parts of Cuba who managed to gather in Placetas to hold a peaceful march to the tribunal and to attend the trial.

The day of the incident, PNR officers slammed Pérez Aguilera against a police vehicle, calling her a “f------ black,” a “black monkey,” and later told her that what they needed was "an order to kill all these f------ blacks who stick their noses into everything," according to Pérez Aguilera’s husband, former political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez.”