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The Cuban Prosecutor's Office requested sentences of 6 and 7 years in prison for citizens Yamislan Pozo Águila (24 years old) and Serguey Pozo Tagle (45 years old) for distributing leaflets with political messages and recording their dissemination to send it abroad.
The case, as reported by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), is moving toward trial for the crime of "propaganda against the constitutional order" and originated in the early morning of February 10, 2025, when.
According to the report, one of the accused distributed pamphlets in a public space while the other filmed the action.
The case was processed by the Unit for Instruction of Crimes Against State Security and was transferred to the Chamber of Crimes Against State Security of the Provincial Court.
According to the prosecutor's document, the flyers promoted slogans of “Cuba Primero”, called for “a free and prosperous tomorrow,” and designated “Day Zero” as a day of civic mobilization.
The OCDH, which reviewed the accusation, argues that the text does not contain calls for violence or to attack institutions, meaning it lacks penal typicity and its punishment would amount to criminalizing a political idea or expectation.
The organization frames the process within a pattern of sustained repression: in October alone, it documented 198 actions against the civilian population—29 arbitrary arrests and 169 abuses—and, since January, 2,660 incidents aimed at obstructing or limiting civil and political rights.
The report describes that Serguey Pozo threw the pamphlets at 5:30 AM while Yamislan Pozo recorded him with a cell phone "in order to send it to a person residing abroad."
Among the phrases included in the accusation are calls to “come together once and for all in the final effort” and that “Cubans will take to the streets to herald the first day of a full, dignified, and just life.”
For OCDH, it is a matter of political speech protected by Article 54 of the Constitution and by international standards of freedom of expression; it also recalls comparative jurisprudence that protects political criticism even when it is harsh, as long as it does not incite violence or hatred.
After the preparatory phase, file 122/2025 was ready for the court hearing regarding offenses against state security.
The OCDH requests the immediate release of the accused and denounces that the Prosecutor's Office is attempting to charge them with incitement for content that, in their view, does not pose a concrete and immediate risk to the protected legal interest.
In the same provincial context, the observatory reported sentences of 5 and 6 years against six individuals for "ringing pots and other metallic objects," which it claims confirms a trend of penalizing expressions of dissent.
As the process moves toward trial and dates, the court, and evidence to be presented in the hearing are yet to be determined, the case of the flyers has become a gauge of the legal system's tolerance threshold regarding peaceful protest: for the prosecution, the slogans represent propaganda against the constitutional order; for human rights organizations, they are expressions of political thought, and punishing them undermines principles of legality and freedom of expression.
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