Havana Court denies change of precautionary measure to young Cuban Luis Robles

The Popular Provincial Court of Havana denied the change of precautionary measure in favor of the young Cuban Luis Robles, arrested last December for raising a banner with the slogan "Freedom, no more repression" on a central street in the city.

The Cuban regime agreed "not to agree to the variation of the requested precautionary measure" and to ratify the precautionary measure of provisional detention until the oral trial hearing.

The document, sent toCyberCuba by the brother of the detainee,Landy Fernandez, states that Robles is being accused of the crimes of enemy propaganda and disobedience, for which the Prosecutor's Office requests a joint sanction of six years of deprivation of liberty.

The 28-year-old's lawyer submitted the request for a change ofprecautionary measure on August 2, based on the statements of the president of the Supreme People's Court, Rubén Remigio Ferro, last July, when he said that "in Cuba no one was punished for their way of thinking," and that "demonstrating is a Constitutional right."

The detainee's mother, Yindra Elizástigui, also requested a change of measure, alleging that she has already been in provisional prison for 9 months for demonstrating peacefully on San Rafael Boulevard.

Robles is being held in the Combinado del Este prison awaiting a trial, which was scheduled for July 16, but was suspended after the massive protests on July 11 in 60 towns and cities in Cuba.

In ten months of imprisonment for exercising his citizen's right to demonstrate, the young man from Guantanamo, who has a degree in Computer Science, has been held incommunicado at least five times in punishment cells.

In April of this year, the inmates of the Combinado del Este themselves reported that they had not seen him for a long time, not even remotely.

This is the fourth request for a change of measure made by the Cuban activist's lawyer. In July, another was presented that was also denied, and which was based on statements by Miguel Díaz-Canel where he assured that peaceful protests are not repressed in Cuba.

Luis Robles has become a symbol of peaceful protests in Cuba, after his arrest while calmly holding a sign was published live on social networks.

In a video released by his family recently and that was recorded by the activist before his arrest, Robles himself acknowledges his conviction that if you protest on the Island "they will ruin your life."