• Submitted by: Luis Manuel Mazorra
• Society
• 10 / 08 / 2014

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In April 2003 a group of 11 Cubans hijacked Baraguá boat that crosses the Bay of Havana, intending to escape to United States of America. Resulting from this act was a trial that sentenced to death three "heads of the kidnappers." The Cuban lawyer Jorge Ortega R. Betancourt, who was involved in the case, talked about this.

Betancourt, who in April 2003 was a lawyer in Firm Collective Old Havana, was assigned to the case. He defended four defendants for which the DPP regime demanded life imprisonment for his involvement in the incident.

On April 2 were the facts; on Tuesday April 8 was the trial and the appeal on Wednesday 9. On Friday, when Betancourt went to the firm, there was the dictum that the Supreme Court had send with the ratification of the death penalty. When he went to speak with the director of law his words were: "do not worry much, they shot them dawn."

The trial was conducted under tight security and "outside the village," said the lawyer. The press rarely has access to the hearings. Usually Cubans learn of the results through official notes. It was the case of the shooting of the three in 2003, who were described as "active and brutal leaders of the hijackers."

Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla García and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac shooting came despite the authorities recognized that fact ended "without a shot or a scratch." According to reports at the hearing, there was only one knife involved in the attempted kidnapping and firearms not, as had been reported, Betancourt said.

"There was proved that these people did not threaten anyone, did not hurt anyone, they did not shed a drop of blood," said the lawyer, but at 11 hours, the judges ratified the death sentences asking the Prosecution.

On appeal "the same views, it was a crime of illegal departure from the country and not terrorism wielded, because besides this offense carries an intention to cause it. The purpose of these people were not causing damage but coming to the United States" he said.

The news of the shootings sparked protests among residents of Havana neighborhoods where the three men lived, as well as a global wave of criticism. Despite irregularities and the speed with which it condemned and took the lives of three people, the government said it was "full respect for the guarantees and fundamental rights of the accused in the process."

In this case the measures had an exemplary order. Maikel Delgado Aramburo, Yoanny Thomas Gonzalez, Harold Alcala Aramburo and Ramon Henry Grillo, judged by Copello Castillo, Sevilla García and Martínez Isaac, were sentenced to life imprisonment and remain in prison today.

Betancourt said he also participated in other related to an attempted hijacking of a plane in 2007 judgment, in this case the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and were not shot, despite committing more violent acts.

Source: Diario de Cuba