Yoel Bencomo Martínez
Cuban independent photojournalist Yoel Bencomo Martínez earlier this month was sentenced to 1 year in prison, in apparent retaliation for taking photographs the Castro dictatorship did not like.
In the months leading to his arrest on July 5, 2013, Bencomo had been documenting human rights abuses and the work of activists with the opposition United Anti-Totalitarian Front (FANTU) in Villa Clara province, according to Guillermo Farinas, the head of FANTU.
Bencomo sat in jail for about 15 months before he was tried this past October and convicted of a charge of "disobedience."
Apparently, Bencomo had been driving one night when five men, who turned out to be police officers, stepped out of the darkness and tried to get him to stop. Afraid he was about to be robbed, Bencomo kept driving, ahead of gunshots he testified were fired at him as he fled.
Bencomo was convicted despite conflicting testimony about the gunfire. Three of the four officers who testified said they did not have any weapons, but the fourth man said shots were fired.
The photographer’s son, Yoel Bencomo Treto, says it is common sense not to stop for strangers in this part of Cuba.
“In Cuba, when they want to imprison someone, they do so and that’s that,” he said. “My father didn’t commit any crime. He only took the precaution of not stopping for unknown individuals. Several drivers have been robbed in Villa Clara; some have even disappeared.”
Recent Comments