Posted on Thu, Aug. 30, 2007
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald
Four participants in a prison revolt in Santiago, Cuba that left two
military officers dead have been given sentences of 30 years to life, a
human rights activist in Havana reported.
Army recruit Yoelvis Delgado Arvelo, who was working as a guard, and an
inmate known only as Mursuli were given life sentences, said Elizardo
Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, an illegal but tolerated dissident group.
Army recruit Irán Cabrera León and another soldier who was not
identified -- both also guards -- were sentenced to 30 years of
imprisonment, Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald on Tuesday.
The sentences were imposed by an army tribunal in June but were
disclosed only this week, Sánchez added. Cuban media have not reported
the sentences.
The prison break allegedly took place Dec. 20, 2006, when three recruits
on compulsory military service and one prison inmate tried to take over
El Manguito Prison, 17 miles from Santiago.
Details are sketchy, but Cubans on the island have said that the armed
recruits seized the sentry post at the prison's gate, cut off telephone
lines and tried to flee with two prison inmates after a shootout in
which two military officers were killed and one of the inmates was
wounded. The slain men were Lt. Oliverio Orozco and 2nd Lt. José A.
Tamayo, according to the sources.
The three recruits and the other inmate were believed to have been
captured within 24 hours and taken to Boniatico Prison near Santiago.
Cuban authorities still have not revealed the fate of three other army
recruits who on May 3 attempted to hijack a plane at José Martí
International Airport in Havana, an incident in which an army lieutenant
colonel was killed. Cuban authorities have said the would-be hijackers
shot the officer to death.
The recruits are believed to be in a military prison.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/219797.html
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