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The Provincial People's Court of Holguín accepted on February 9 a habeas corpus petition submitted on behalf of the young individuals Kamil Zayas Pérez and Ernesto Ricardo Medina, linked to the independent project El4tico. This is an unusual decision that now compels the Prosecutor's Office to officially explain why both remain detained, under what charges, and in what conditions.
The information was released by the independent organization Ciudadanía y Libertad, which confirmed that the First Criminal Chamber proceeded with the appeal and ordered the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Holguín to immediately address the legality of the detention, the charges brought against the young people, and the treatment they received, having been arrested since February 6.
According to the judicial provision signed by Judge Marcos Michel Betancourt Leyva, the court acknowledges that the request alleges a detention without notification of charges, lacking specification of crimes and without adhering to established legal formalities, which could constitute a violation of fundamental rights recognized even by the Cuban Constitution itself.
The court document indicates that Zayas Pérez and Medina were processed based on an unnumbered complaint, remain in detention without any knowledge of the charges against them, and were arrested without the requirements mandated by law. For these reasons, the court deems the "immediate release" of both to be in the public interest.
As part of the process, a hearing has been scheduled for February 12 at 9:00 AM, when the Prosecutor's Office will need to present the relevant files and reports and submit to a judicial examination of the case, a step that breaks the opacity that has characterized the detention thus far.
The habeas corpus was filed by activist Yanet Rodríguez Sánchez, who had already gone to the Provincial Court of Holguín the previous Wednesday on behalf of the young people, demanding official information about their whereabouts, the formal charges, and the conditions of their detention.
Both were detained during a police operation carried out in the early hours and taken to the Criminal Instruction headquarters of the province, known as "Everyone Sings," a center criticized in multiple reports for violent interrogations and degrading treatment.
During the arrest, State Security agents confiscated computers, phones, cameras, and other equipment used by the young people to document their work, according to reports from activists and civil society organizations.
The admission of habeas corpus represents an unusual occurrence in the Cuban judicial system and places the Prosecutor's Office under public and legal scrutiny, amidst a growing dissent both on the island and abroad regarding the detention of the young people from El4tico, who have become a symbol of the cost faced by those attempting to exercise their right to express themselves and document the Cuban reality.
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