A Cuban man faces eight years in prison in Guantanamo for 50 pounds of sugar that he allegedly found.

A young man from Guantanamo named Eldernay Michel Mengana is facing a prosecution request for eight years of prison after allegedly being found with 50 pounds of sugar while working on a bicycle taxi.

Her sister, Irisnay Goulet, denounced in a Facebook post that the Municipal Court of Guantánamo and the Prosecutor's Office are committing a great injustice against the young man for an incident that occurred on May 22, 2023.

She tells that on that day, Mengana was working on a pedicab when she found a bag with 50 pounds of sugar on a corner of the city. "She did what any citizen would do given the situation in the province of Guantánamo, she took it," the woman pointed out.

However, the police and the manager of a local store claim that the accused stole the sugar from the establishment.

Two blocks away from the place, Mengana was intercepted by the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and the Guantánamo Special Brigade, "who without asking for identification or explanation, beat him and the next morning searched his house."

According to the family, in the records, they did not find any evidence to support the accusation of "robbery with force in a warehouse" made by the prosecution.

On April 16, 2024, the young man received the prosecution's request for eight years of imprisonment, and on June 4, he was taken to trial where the same request was confirmed.

The prosecution, the National Revolutionary Police, and the manager of the warehouse where the sugar was taken from pointed to the young man during the trial, Goulet details.

He claims that the defendant's lawyer asks the judge to punish him with "one year without imprisonment as he has been in prison for 13 months." The trial has concluded for sentencing.

At the end of her post, the woman questions why her brother is still in prison if there is no evidence against him.

Even though thefts involving force have increased in Cuba and the climate of widespread violence, Cubans continue to question the actions of the police, arbitrary trials lacking evidence, and so-called exemplary trials.