Related videos:
A Habeas Corpus petition was presented this week before the Provincial People's Court of Artemisa aimed at challenging the legality of the deprivation of liberty of the artist and political prisoner Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
The request was drafted by the organization Cubalex, which claims that the artist has already served the full five-year sentence of imprisonment imposed on him, and therefore his continued detention could be considered illegal.
The appeal is based on Article 96 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, which recognizes the right of any person who is deprived of liberty illegally to request a Habeas Corpus directly or through a third party before a competent court.
It also invokes Article 787 of Law No. 143 of the Criminal Procedure, which establishes that any person detained outside the cases or without the guarantees provided by law must be released through this judicial procedure.
The document recalls that on June 24, 2022, the People's Municipal Court of Centro Habana issued Judgment No. 42 of 2022 against Otero Alcántara, who was convicted of the crimes of offense to the symbols of the homeland, contempt, and public disorder.
The individual sanctions were consolidated into a joint sentence of five years of imprisonment.
According to the calculation presented by Cubalex, the artist has been in prison since July 11, 2021, under provisional detention, a period that should be counted as part of the sentence served.
The resource also mentions Decree-Law 74, the regulation of the Execution Law, which allows for reductions of up to 60 days for each year of sentence served in cases of good behavior.
According to the calculations presented in the application, the time served by February 2026 would amount to four years and seven months, to which approximately eight months of accumulated reduction for good behavior would be added.
The total would exceed the five years of sanctions imposed by the court, which is why the defense argues that the sentence would already be extinguished.
Based on these arguments, Cubalex requests that the court examine the legality of the current deprivation of liberty and order the immediate release of Otero Alcántara.
The organization announced that it will follow up on the process of the appeal and the response from the judicial authorities.
Filed under: