diariodecuba.com
Alleged Repeat Feminicide Perpetrator in Cuba Released as Judge Deems It ‘Passionate Crime’
‘There are no protocols to assess if these individuals who have committed a crime are fit to reintegrate into society’, criticizes the director of the feminist magazine ‘Alas Tensas’.
The alleged perpetrator of one of the three recently confirmed feminicides in Cuba by independent observatories was not only a repeat offender but had also been reported for an attempted feminicide by his previous victim. Despite the severity of his first crime, he received parole after serving about a third of his sentence. The judge who made the decision to release him early considered his young age at the time and categorized the crime as a ‘passionate crime’.
The director of the feminist magazine Alas Tensas, Ileana Álvarez, explained to DIARIO DE CUBA that following the verification of Jessica Castillo’s feminicide on June 15 in Pinar del Río, the alleged attacker had murdered a 16-year-old girl who had been his partner in 2011.
This first victim, identified by the gender observatories of Alas Tensas (OGAT) and the platform Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba as Emelinda, had denounced her attacker for attempted murder before he took her life. At that time, he was 17 years old. The judges sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment, noting his brutal manner and indifference towards the victim. However, he served around seven years and was then released.
‘He was released because he was 17 at the time of the first crime, and the judge considered it a passionate crime and decided he should not serve the entire sentence,’ Álvarez explained to DIARIO DE CUBA.
‘We issued a note to seek restorative justice for the young girl. The crime was not widely known at the time due to limited internet access, although photos of the aftermath circulated via USB drives,’ Álvarez added, referring to the revictimization of Emelinda.
The observatories highlighted that residents of San Luis, where the feminicide occurred, still remember ‘the poor handling by authorities and unscrupulous individuals as photos of the crime scene circulated from USB to USB.’
Álvarez also criticized the lack of protocols in Cuba for assessing if a perpetrator is fit to rejoin society, contrasting it with practices in countries like Spain.
‘There are no protocols here to evaluate if these individuals are apt to reenter society and not recommit feminicide. In Spain, there are various psychological and legal protocols for this purpose,’ she said.
The observatories noted that the Cuban Penal Code approved in 2022 stipulates extremely subjective conditions for granting parole, citing Article 89.1, which allows for parole if there are founded reasons to believe the individual is reformed and the goals of the punishment have been achieved without fully serving the sentence.
The organizations called on the public to stop revictimizing Emelinda and Jessica. ‘Empowering women and other affected individuals requires awareness, education, and activism, which continue to be criminalized, as seen with feminist activism,’ they emphasized, stressing the urgency of a comprehensive gender violence law in Cuba.
In December 2023, OGAT, Yo Sí Te Creo, and other organizations requested the Cuban National Assembly to approve this law, which has been long demanded.
The legislative body responded on February 19, stating that the issues raised were being evaluated. However, the Cuban legislative schedule for 2023–2027, published in June 2023, does not include a law against gender violence.
Read the full article in English on diariodecuba.com, using Google Translate.
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