The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Holguín has reportedly requested eight years in prison for Ernesto Ricardo Medina and ten for Kamil Zayas Pérez, the two founders of the independent audiovisual project El 4tico, according to provisional conclusions accessed by Martí Noticias.
The First Criminal Chamber of the Provincial Court received the request and ordered the commencement of the oral trial.
The news arrives as both young individuals have been in nearly eight months of unjust and arbitrary detention since their arrest on February 6, 2026, with no prosecutor's request or trial date set until this Thursday.
It was also revealed on the same day that the Popular Municipal Tribunal of Havana East sentenced Anna Bensi and her mother to two years of restriction of liberty for recording and sharing on social media a meeting with an agent from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
Both cases add to the reports of repression against critical content creators in Cuba.
What is the Prosecutor's Office accusing the founders of El 4tico of?
The prosecution accuses the two young individuals from Holguín of the crimes of propaganda against the constitutional order, defamation of institutions and organizations, and of heroes and martyrs, as well as incitement to commit crimes, for having produced and disseminated content on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube between November and December 2025.
According to the accusation, the defendants acted in mutual agreement since November 7, 2025, financed their equipment with remittances from abroad, and maintained contact with opposition figures exiled in Spain—Yunior García Aguilera, Carolina Barrero, and Amelia Calzadilla—whom they allegedly sought advice and scripts from.
Ernesto Medina's mother denies the accusations
The mother of Medina, Mileydis Medina Machín, denied those accusations to Martí Noticias.
“They are common means. They are not advanced or sophisticated technology articles. Of course, they did not seize weapons, propaganda, flyers, or posters,” affirmed Medina Machín.
Regarding contact with opponents in exile, he was equally emphatic: “They are individuals who, at some point in history, have also expressed their disagreement with certain things happening in this country, but that does not prove anything.”
The woman does not hold out hope for the outcome of the process.
"We know that there is no rule of law in Cuba, we have no legal guarantees, their opinion prevails, and they will be condemned because they exercised the right to freedom of expression," he lamented.
Reports of irregularities during the process
The case has accumulated multiple reports of procedural irregularities.
According to the reports on the case, during the arrest operation, the agents refused to show the search warrant and acted without eyewitnesses, actions that are deemed contrary to the guarantees established in Law No. 143 of the Criminal Procedure.
A habeas corpus petition was rejected by the Provincial Court, and the U.S. Embassy in Cuba demanded the immediate release of both founders in August.
Cubalex also denounced the violation of due process and warned that "the prolongation of pretrial detention for six months without a prosecutor's request or a trial date exacerbates concerns about the procedural guarantees for both young men."
El 4tico was an audiovisual project that emerged in Holguín in 2024, producing sociopolitical analysis and critique, and had accumulated around 80,000 followers on Instagram before its creators were arrested.
After the ten-day period granted to the lawyers to prepare their defense, the court must set the date for the oral trial hearings.
Medina Machín bitterly summarized the certainty felt by his family: "Perhaps their sentence will be slightly reduced, but there is no doubt that they will be convicted," he concluded.
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