By WILL WEISSERT – 4 days ago
HAVANA (AP) — A Cuban opposition leader said Tuesday she has filed a
criminal complaint against the communist government for airing on state
television evidence it collected by bugging her phone, going through her
garbage and secretly filming her.
The evidence was used by Cuba's government to build a case that Martha
Beatriz Roque allegedly took cash brought to the island by the former
top U.S. diplomat in Havana.
Roque said that while Cuba's constitution allows state security agents
to spy on citizens, it prohibits them from making public the evidence
they collect.
In May, government television and newspapers dedicated three days to
presenting e-mails, photos, letters, videos and audio tapes it claims
prove that then U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly personally
carried funds to Roque, who allegedly passed them on to other dissidents
and activists.
Cuba says the money was donated by a Miami organization headed by
Santiago Alvarez, a Cuban-American businessman once convicted in the
U.S. of conspiring to collect military-style weapons to overthrow Fidel
Castro's government.
In a Tuesday news conference, Roque claimed that much of the evidence
presented three months ago was taken out of context or fabricated, but
she repeatedly refused to confirm or deny whether she took money carried
by Parmly or to say if any cash came from a group linked to Alvarez.
"I don't have an answer for that," Roque said. She added that she would
not address the charges unless Cuban authorities allow her to appear on
the government's nightly round-table program, which publicized the case
against her in May.
Roque is an economist and former government official who was among 75
opposition leaders and activists charged with working with Washington to
undermine the communist system and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences
in 2003. She was eventually released on medical parole.
She said she filed the complaint Monday with Cuba's Ministry of Justice,
charging top officials, including Randy Alonso, host of the government
round-table program, with criminal conduct.
Parmly, the former top American diplomat, has declined to comment on
Cuba's charges and left the island in July, at the end of his diplomatic
tour.
Also at the news conference, human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said
dissident musician Gorki Aguila was arrested on the charge of
"dangerousness." The government uses the charge to arrest suspects it
believes may eventually commit crimes.
Aguila, 39, has been an outspoken critic of Cuba's government and is the
lead singer of the rock band Porno para Ricardo, which was banded from
official airwaves after criticizing life on the island in its songs.
Cuba's international press office would not comment, but Aguila's band's
Web site reported that he was arrested Monday, as he was finishing the
band's latest album.
"We are in the process of finding a lawyer willing to help him," said
Sanchez, who said he had spoken with Aguila's family. "If there's a
trial on Thursday, we will try to be present for that, if we can."
Sanchez is head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, a leading authority on political prisoners being held on
the island.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFUCVFmT5sgmejdbHOEm3lOrxoFAD92Q9UBG0
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