[News] The charges against the ABC correspondent in Cuba, Camila Acosta, are changed to "public disorder" and "contempt"

[SougarLord]

 

Agents of the Cuban regime communicated this Tuesday to the father of journalist Camila Costa the modification of the charges against her, which go from being prosecuted for crimes against State security, as they informed her on the day of her arrest, this Monday, to being tried by "Contempt and public disorder." They did so when he went to visit her yesterday, where she has been held since Monday, the Infanta and Manglar police station.

 

Orlando Acosta was with the reporter at the time when "three agents" arrested her. Camila had gone out to the street to accompany her father to take a PCR test, necessary to return this Friday to the United States, where she has her residence. It was only a few hours ago that the journalist had sent her last chronicle to this newspaper about the protests in Havana.

 

"I have been waiting two hours before two instructors attended me," explains Orlando to ABC. “Now they say that they accuse her of contempt and public disorder. That she was going to be there for 72 hours and then they would pass her to the Prosecutor's Office. He confirms that he has not been able to see his daughter, with whom he has not had any contact since Monday morning (they have not allowed phone calls either), by order of the Ministry of Health "which prohibits visits to the dungeons by the Covid ». According to sources consulted by this newspaper, the penalty for the crimes for which Camila has been accused could range “between a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 6 years. Looking at the matter, a probable sanction would be 4 years and 6 months.

 

“Now they say that they accuse her of contempt and public disorder. That she was going to be there for 72 hours and then they would pass her on to the Prosecutor's Office ", Orlando Acosta explains to ABC

The reasons for the accusation, according to the agents, would be to "record the protests and who incited them," says the journalist's father, who recalls how in previous interviews with State security agents he was warned "that what I had to do is take Camila out of the country, but on one condition, that she doesn't come back again ». Currently, the reporter is ‘regulated’ by the regime - as punishment for making critical statements against him abroad - which means that she is prohibited from leaving the island.

 

But Orlando will never ask that of her daughter, “because she is a journalist, and she feels good about what she does and I cannot interfere with that. She is doing what they taught her in college, which is journalism, and not what the regime says, "he emphasizes. He acknowledges that he could have taken her out of Cuba, since he has a residence in the United States, "but she does not want him."

 

Orlando's voice breaks when he talks about the events of the last few days: the arrest by three officers; the raid on the house, perpetrated by around 15 policemen, "while the building was surrounded by policemen and dogs"; the theft of the equipment that the journalist had at home, "two personal computers." With the house sealed, he had to seek refuge in the house of a friend, "a good Cuban who is not afraid," he concedes.

 

Added to this is the notice from the landlord this Tuesday to collect all the things from the house, where Camila rented, within an hour. "The owner of the apartment called us to tell us that state security had given him two hours, that if we were not going to pick them up they were going to throw them down," says Orlando.

 

It is not the first time that Camila has been evicted from a rental house. She has suffered it almost a dozen times in recent years due to pressures from State security on landlords, who she threatens to take away their property if they do not comply with her instructions.

 

Two nights in jail

On how her daughter must feel right now, her father acknowledges that despite the fact that she has been detained on other occasions, it is the first time that she has spent so much in a dungeon. "They released her after a few hours, the same day, but she had never slept in it." Today she will have spent two nights in prison. Although he initially planned to travel to the US this Friday to return to her home, Orlando will not leave the island while his daughter is detained, "even if months go by, and I lose my residence."

 

Spain defends the right to demonstrate freely and peacefully and asks the Cuban authorities to respect it. We defend human rights without conditions. We require the immediate release of @CamilaAcostaCu.

- José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) July 13, 2021

Given the international support that the arrest of Camila has unleashed, including a tweet from the new Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, in which he requires "the immediate release" of the journalist, Orlando believes that "is what the only one who is going to help her », she concludes with an emotional voice, hoping for a positive outcome for her daughter.