APP GRATIS

Young Christian on trial in Cuba for refusing to enter Military Service

On December 22, he is summoned for a trial for disobedience, for failing to report for mandatory military service.

Oscar Kendri Fial © Captura de imagen en YouTube / Entrevista por Ruhama Fernández
Oscar Kendri Fial Photo © Image capture on YouTube / Interview by Ruhama Fernández

This article is from 3 years ago

A young Cuban is pending trial for refusing to enter Military Service. He alleges that his condition as a religious person does not allow him to use weapons or exercise violence.

Oscar Kendri Fial Craftsman offered an interview to the Cuban youtuber Ruhama Fernandez, in which he tells of the moment he received the first summons to go to Military Service, in Contramaestre, his municipality of residence in Santiago de Cuba.

"The head of the sector came into my house, gave me the summons (for military service) and started talking loudly and saying that if I didn't show up he was going to put me in prison. I told him that I couldn't pass Military Service because of my principles as a Christian", narrates Oscar.

The young man, with the support of his family, reported the incident to the Prosecutor's Office. When he returned home, the Sector Chief once again requested him, in bad manners, to appear for the Military Service summons.

Once again Oscar reported the police officer for mistreatment to the Contramaestre authorities and the head of the Sector was demoted, but the young man also received a notification to testify in court.

Fial says that a few days after testifying before a judge, he was arrested and held for a day. He was able to be released by paying a bail of one thousand pesos. He December 22 is scheduled for trial, for disobedience, by not showing up for mandatory Military Service.

"I am obliged to undergo military service, but there are religions that do not do it, such as the Adventists, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Soldiers of the Cross of Christ," said the young man who identified himself as one of the leaders of the church movement of the apostle Valerius, by Contramaestre.

The young man's father has shown his support and argues that his son cannot be tried for military disobedience when Oscar is a civilian.

In October, another of the cases that became known of young people arrested by State Security for refusing to do Military Service was that of Osmel Adrián Rubio Santos, an 18-year-old young man who later went on strike at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement.

"What the people of Cuba need is food, not weapons," Rubio said during a Facebook livestream in October.

The majority of the activists who participated in the San Isidro barracks, such as Adrián Rubio have been detained on several occasions, arbitrarily and their homes remain under surveillance, subjecting them to illegal deprivation of liberty for more than three weeks.

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