Cubans in Finland take first step to appeal sentences
On Monday (Sept. 26), lawyers for the five convicted Cubans announced that their clients were dissatisfied with the Pirkanmaa District Court’s ruling, the newspaper Aamulehti reported.
According to Finnish law, a “notification of discontent” must be filed within seven days of the judgment to indicate that an appeal is forthcoming. The District Court verdict was issued on Sept. 20.
The appeal will likely be raised at the Court of Appeals in the city of Turku, south of Tampere and west of Helsinki, the newspaper said.
[Photo at top of two of the convicted players: Abrahan Alfonso Gavilán (12) and Osmany Uriarte Mestre (14). Inovel Romero Valdés (2) was not among the defendants.]
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FINNISH PAPER DEFIES BLACKOUT, GIVES DETAILS OF RAPE BY CUBANS
(Sept. 21) – The Finnish newspaper Aamulehti has chosen to challenge a court-imposed blackout on details about the rape of a Finnish woman by Cuban volleyball players and has published an account of the events of July 2-3 in the city of Tampere.
[For background on this story in Progreso Weekly, click here and here and here.]
What follows is Aamulehti’s outline, likely obtained from witnesses’ testimony during the Aug. 29-31 trial.
The incident began close to midnight on July 2, when the woman — unidentified by the court but described as “of legal age” — was in a bar at the Ilves Hotel with a friend.
The plaintiff told the court that she was “tired and slightly drunk” when she met Osmany Uriarte Mestre and Ricardo Calvo Manzano at the bar. During their conversation, she agreed to go to Uriarte’s hotel room and “voluntarily agreed to have sex” with him.
They did go to his room and had sex but, “to the woman’s surprise,” Calvo, Rolando Cepeda Abreu, and Abrahan Alfonso Gavilán walked in and “raped the woman several times,” using violence and taking advantage of the fact that she was not able to defend herself.
“Some of the defendants raped the victim simultaneously,” the newspaper says, describing the acts as “particularly humiliating.” The men held her by the neck and hair, as she pleaded for them to stop. She managed to scream and her cries were heard by the guest in a neighboring room.
The violence went on for about 90 minutes. All four Cubans “acted together and in concert,” the account goes.
The last Cuban to come into the room was Dariel Albo Miranda, who reportedly was shocked at what he saw and interceded for the woman. He helped her to get dressed and took her to his room, which he shared with Luis Sosa Sierra.
However, when Albo left the room, perhaps to get assistance, Sosa raped her, taking advantage of the fact that she was paralyzed by shock.
“In the end, the victim managed to get dressed and left the room,” Aamulehti continues. “She went into the lobby, where the staff noticed her condition” and called an ambulance and police. All six men were arrested.
At the trial, all defendants denied the charges. “Albo’s indictment was dismissed altogether [because] he had not had sexual contact with the victim,” the newspaper says. The Pirkanmaa District Court released him from custody at the end of the trial.
Uriarte, Calvo, Cepeda and Gavilán were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Sosa was given a lighter sentence — three and a half years — because, while he did abuse the woman, he was not involved in the group rape in Uriarte’s room and did not engage in the “particularly humiliating” assault his companions committed.
The newspaper ends its account by reminding readers that the court’s “judgment is not final.” An appeal is expected.
[Photo at top of the Ilves Hotel in Tampere, where the Cuban volleyball team stayed and the sexual attack took place.]
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CUBANS MIGHT APPEAL, ALLEGING UNDUE PUBLICITY AND JOB LOSS
The five Cubans held in a Tampere prison after sentencing for rape are expected to appeal to the Finnish Supreme Court for a reduction in sentence, the newspaper Aamulehti reported this week.
The grounds? “Exceptional publicity” on the case and the loss of their sports contracts back in Cuba.
Defense lawyers raised those issues with the Pirkanmaa District Court that heard the case, citing previous instances of “mitigating factors” that have led to reduced sentences after being presented to the Supreme Court.
However, the three judges who heard the case in August pointed out that the Cuban athletes are well known in the world of sports and should expect to attract publicity if they are charged with a serious crime.
The loss of their privacy and the cancellation of their work contracts by the Cuban Volleyball Federation “were a foreseeable consequence of such an offense” and did not qualify for a reduction in sentence, the court said in a rebuttal to the lawyers’ bid.
