Amid secrecy, one Cuban defendant in rape trial in Finland is freed (Updated)

Cuban volleyball player Dariel Albo Miranda was released from detention in Tampere, Finland, on Wednesday (Aug. 31) during a trial for him and five colleagues for the alleged rape of a Finnish woman last month.

[For background in Progreso Weekly, click here and here.]

No reason for Albo’s release was immediately given, other than “the conditions for his detention are no longer met.”

According to the Cuban website Cubadebate, Albo’s release “implies that the magistrates rejected totally or partially the charges against him.”

Albo’s defense attorney, Pirkka Lappalainen, said he was very pleased by the three-judge court’s decision.

“In my opinion, tomorrow he will get back his passport and will be allowed to return to Cuba,” Lappalainen said, as quoted by the Tampere newspaper Aamulehti. Until Albo gets his passport back, he will remain in police custody. His visa expired during the pre-trial detention.

The other five defendants — Abrahan Alfonso Gavilán, Norberto Ricardo Calvo Manzano, Rolando Cepeda Abreu, Luis Sosa Tomás Sierra and Osmany Santiago Uriarte Mestre — remain in custody.

The Pirkanmaa District Court, where the trial was held, “will deliver a judgment on Sept. 20 to the Prime Minister’s office,” according to the Yle News Service. In Finland, sentences for aggravated rape range from 2 to 10 years.

The 6-foot-7-inch Albo is 24-years-old. He was recently signed up by a Greek volleyball team, Panathinaikos.

The prosecutor in the case, Leena Kolvuniemi, told the press on Monday (Aug. 29) that the case documents would remain sealed until the year 2076 at the request of the plaintiff, an unidentified Finnish woman.

The judges in the case were Pia Vuojolainen, Juha Parmio and Aleksi Pakkanen.

Photo at top: Dariel Albo Miranda listens to an unidentified interpreter translate the words of his lawyer, Pirkka Lappalainen (at right).