The family of a young girl who suffered continued sexual abuse at the hands of an officer from the Ministry of the Interior in Buey Arriba, Granma Province, has been waiting for nearly a month for a response to the appeal they filed against the lenient sentence of three years of corrective labor without imprisonment handed down by the Municipal Court to the perpetrator.
The lenient sentence given to Maikel Solano Arévalo, 41, who was proven to have committed continuous sexual abuse against the four-year-old girl, was contested by her family. They have reported waiting more than 20 days for the resolution of their appeal.
According to a report by Martí Noticias, the ruling by the judges of the Popular Municipal Court of Buey Arriba occurred on February 20, 2024, but the sentence was only notified on March 29, as per the document obtained by the media outlet.
Article 630.2 of Law 143 of the Penal Process, approved by the Cuban regime in 2021, stipulates that once an appeal is received, the court that issued the sentence has three days to forward it to the Provincial Court, which must then convene a new appeal hearing. This hearing, allegedly, has not yet taken place.
Yelenis Pinilla, the grandmother of the abused girl, expressed her dissatisfaction with Solano’s sentence to Martí Noticias, identifying him as a State Security agent. “I believe that sentence was so disgraceful! Here in Cuba, a criminal kills a cow and gets eight to nine years in prison. But a criminal who abuses a child gets three years of corrective labor without imprisonment,” she emphasized.
Pinilla argues that this happened “because of the corruption that exists in this country among judges and prosecutors, which is both impressive and sad, and because the criminal is a State Security agent. They recruit the worst criminals, that type of person is who they recruit.”
“This town is small, and as they say, ‘small town, big hell,’ and it is known that the criminal is an agent,” the grandmother asserted.
The Municipal Court of Buey Arriba sentenced the sexual aggressor to three years of deprivation of liberty. However, despite the severity of the committed crime, this penalty was substituted for an equal period of corrective labor without imprisonment, as stated in the judicial ruling.
In statements to Martí Noticias, Alaín Espinosa, a lawyer from the legal advisory center Cubalex, questioned the sentence imposed on Solano, describing it as “considerably lenient.”
“They were lenient, even within the penal process because they kept the person free throughout the process,” the jurist noted. “This proves how the political will of the State leans more towards the criminalization and sanctioning of effective exercises of human rights, such as freedom of expression, rather than pursuing serious criminal behaviors in society, like this crime of sexual abuse against a minor.”
Espinosa stated that regarding “the sentence and how the process was handled, it is evident that this person was never deprived of liberty. In fact, the precautionary measure applied throughout the process was an obligation incurred in writing, meaning going to a designated place, which could be a police unit, to sign once a week or every 15 days.”
The Cubalex lawyer indicated that this procedural action gave the accused “the possibility of evading criminal responsibility or obstructing the criminal process by trying, in some way, to influence the girl or her mother and other relatives to falsify their testimony.”
He also stated that the court failed to consider several aggravating circumstances in the process and “should have increased the maximum limit of the sanctioning framework by half. This means that instead of having a sanctioning framework between two and five years of deprivation of liberty, the framework should have been between two and seven and a half years of deprivation of liberty, with the possibility of imposing a sanction closer to this maximum limit than to the minimum limit.”
According to Espinosa, imposing a penalty below five years of deprivation of liberty allowed the judges to substitute the sentence with corrective labor without imprisonment. “We see how the tendency to guarantee a certain degree of impunity to the person responsible for such a serious crime continues, giving them the possibility to commit similar crimes again,” he warned.
The accused, who declared himself innocent of the charges, was not given any prohibition against approaching the victim.
According to the court’s ruling, on a date before July 9, 2023, the young girl, who had occasionally been under the care of the perpetrator’s wife, entered the perpetrator’s house alone on Celia Aguilar Street, without a number, between 9 de Abril and Ignacio Agramonte, in the Vitalio Acuña neighborhood.
Taking advantage of the fact that the girl was not accompanied by any adult family member, the criminal took her to a room, undressed her, and sexually abused her.
Prosecutor Deilenis Tornés Beltrán stated that the abuser committed his “lewd” acts repeatedly, without exact dates being determined. The complaint of the assault was filed by the girl’s mother, Iriannis Contino Pinilla.
During the investigative process, the young girl “accurately and confidently described each of the actions carried out by the accused, detailed the place chosen by him to satisfy his lewd instincts, specifically in the room of the house, described the moment she was targeted by these acts, and pointed out the areas where she was touched,” the court document indicated.
Key Questions About the Appeal in Granma Sexual Abuse Case
In light of the troubling case of sexual abuse in Granma, several questions arise regarding the legal process and the implications of the appeal. Here are some key questions and answers that shed light on the situation:
Why has there been no response to the appeal?
According to Cuban law, the court has a limited time to forward the appeal to the Provincial Court, which must then hold a new hearing. However, it's alleged that this process has not been completed, possibly due to systemic delays or lack of political will.
What are the criticisms of the sentence given to Maikel Solano Arévalo?
Critics, including legal experts and the victim's family, argue that the sentence is excessively lenient given the severity of the crime. They also suggest that the judicial system's corruption and the perpetrator's status as a State Security agent influenced the outcome.
What procedural issues have been highlighted by legal experts?
Experts point out that the accused was never imprisoned during the process and was only required to report periodically. They also note that the court failed to consider aggravating factors, which should have led to a harsher sentence.
What does the future hold for the appeal?
The outcome of the appeal remains uncertain. If the Provincial Court eventually holds a new hearing, there may be a chance for a more just resolution. However, the systemic issues within the Cuban judiciary cast doubt on the likelihood of a fair outcome.