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The Provincial People's Court of Ciego de Ávila rejected the request for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Jonathan David Muir Burgos, a 16-year-old teenager detained following the protests on March 13 in Morón.
According to information published by El Toque, the minor has been in custody since his arrest, and his father, the evangelical pastor Elier Muir Ávila, has raised concerns about the deterioration of his emotional state during confinement. “My son has been psychologically affected, we can see it. Today marks the ninth day of confinement, and last Monday, when we visited him, he already felt like 15 days had passed,” he stated.
The pastor also reported on the teenager's medical condition and the lack of proper care. "He seems very nervous and afraid," he added.
The habeas corpus resource is a legal mechanism designed to assess the legality of a detention and the conditions in which the arrested person is held.
The independent observatory Alas Tensas also denounced the rejection of the request and warned about the seriousness of the decision in a case involving a minor, while highlighting the situation in the context of the arrests related to the protests in Morón.
Jonathan Muir Burgos was detained on March 16 after attending a police summons in that city with his father, amid an operation following the protests. While the pastor was released hours later, the minor was taken to the Technical Investigations Department (DTI) of Ciego de Ávila, where he remains in detention, as has been reported since the beginning of the case.
The authorities associate him with the protests on March 13 and 14 in Morón, during which demonstrations against the regime took place, after which summonses, raids, and arrests were reported, including cases involving young people and minors.
The case has generated particular concern for the adolescent's health. He suffers from dyshidrosis on the skin, associated with infections caused by beta-hemolytic streptococcus and staphylococcus, a condition that requires constant treatment and which, as his father has explained in previous complaints, has put him at risk on several occasions.
During his detention, he has also been threatened with facing charges "to the full extent of the law," amid a context of increasing pressure on those arrested for the protests.
The Muir family has faced pressures in the past due to their independent religious activity. The church led by the pastor is not under state control, which has resulted in surveillance, warnings, and restrictions.
The denial of habeas corpus occurs in a context of increasing repression following the protests in March, leaving the minor without one of the most immediate legal avenues to challenge their detention.
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