A Request for Precautionary Measures was filed today with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on behalf of Reverend Yiorvis Bravo Denis and members of the Apostolic Movement whose property has been arbitrarily confiscated by the Cuban government.
Furthermore, the members of Apostolic Movement, a
religious network which the Cuban authorities have refused to register,
continue to be the subject of intimidation and harassment by the Cuban
government. Reverend Bravo Denis has been fighting the Cuban government for two
years for his right to be recognised as the legal owner of his property which
also acts as the national headquarters of the Apostolic Movement. Reverend
Bravo Denis is represented by Poblete Tamargo, a US-based law practice.
“The case shows another example of state-sponsored intimidation underway in
Cuba since at least 2007,” said Jason Poblete, an attorney leading the case
with Poblete Tamargo.
“The situation will result in loss of a home and church to Rev. Bravo Denis,
his family and to members of the Apostolic movement. Furthermore, it will lead
to permanent psychological and physical harm of Apostolic Movement members. The
Communist Party officials are not even hiding the fact that they are targeting
this group,” Poblete added.
Mervyn Thomas, CEO of CSW said, "We are hopeful that the Inter-American
Commission for Human Rights will fully investigate this case and call the Cuban
government to account for attempting to arbitrarily evict Rev. Bravo Denis and
his family from their home. We hope that this will set a precedent for other
cases where the government has illegally targeted the property of religious
groups in an effort to punish them or to restrict their growth and impact. We
are grateful to Poblete Tamargo for taking on this case and have the utmost admiration
for Rev. Bravo Denis who has stepped forward to claim his rights and to
publicly expose the actions of the Cuban government.”
The property originally belonged to former prisoner of conscience, Reverend
Omar Gude Perez, and his wife Kenia Denis. They legally transferred the
ownership to Rev. Bravo Denis, Kenia Denis’ nephew, before accepting asylum and
moving to the US in January 2013.
On 18 September 2013, Rev. Bravo Denis was cited to appear at the Ministry of
Justice in Camagüey along with Reverend Gude Perez. In a 20-minute court
hearing it was decided that despite all the legal, notarised documents proving
the legal ownership of the property, Rev. Bravo Denis and his family should be
evicted and the government should take over ownership.
The court decision was followed by government-organised 'acts of repudiation'
targeting the home of Rev. Bravo Denis and his family. State security agents,
police and paramilitaries dressed as civilians surrounded the house for days,
shouting insults, throwing rocks, eggs and other hard objects in an attempt to
force them out of the house. On the evening of 26 October 2013, Rev. Bravo
Denis received a summons to appear at the Ministry of Housing at 9:30 am the
following day, a Sunday, outside of normal government working hours. At this
meeting, Rev. Bravo Denis was told that he could stay in the property if he
agreed to submit all church activities in advance to government officials for
approval. He was also asked to pay the government 300CUC (US$300) and to
acknowledge that the government was the true owner of the property. Rev. Bravo
Denis continued to assert his legal ownership of the property and refused these
conditions. Since then, the Cuban government has continued to threaten the
family with eviction.
CSW believes the targeting of this property is part of a wider aggressive
campaign by the Cuban government to eliminate certain religious groups from the
island. In 2010, Caridad Diego, the head of the Office for Religious Affairs
for the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party was caught on video
vowing that the government would target Cuban leaders of new religious groups,
like the Apostolic Movement, for eviction from their homes and the confiscation
of their places of worship.