Two pastors, a married couple, were detained on 19 May after referencing their religious beliefs in a military tribunal at which their son was being tried for attempting to evade obligatory military service.
Luis Guillermo Borjas and Roxana Rojas, affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination which has legal status in Cuba, and who live in Nueva Gerona on the Isla de la Juventud, were charged with the crimes of disrespect and disobeying the authorities. Their trial is scheduled for 9 June. The prosecutor has requested that they be sentenced to eight years in prison.
The couple were summoned to the military tribunal after their son, Kevin Laureido Rojas, ran away from a military facility after having been taken by force to perform the military service that is required of all Cuban males at the age of 18, despite having a medical exemption. At the tribunal, the couple presented documents from a medical commission that found that their son’s psychiatric condition makes him unable to perform military service.
When the military prosecutor accused the couple of lying and presenting false evidence, Pastor Borjas protested, stating that the officials in the court would be accountable to ‘God’s justice’. The prosecutor then ordered the couple to be detained and charged, claiming that it is illegal to mention God or God’s justice in a military tribunal.
Pastor Borjas remains detained in a cell at the police station. Pastor Rojas, who has a heart condition, was taken to hospital, unconscious, later the same night. CSW has received reports that while in hospital, Pastor Rojas has been harassed by a young man in civilian clothes who falsely claimed to be a nurse.
CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘CSW calls on the Cuban authorities to immediately drop the criminal charges against Pastors Luis Guillermo Borjas and Roxana Rojas, and to release Pastor Borjas from detention. It is unacceptable that a simple reference to their religious beliefs in response to the military’s unjust treatment of their family should be criminalised, and even more unconscionable that the government would seek an eight-year prison sentence. CSW urges the international community to press the Cuban government to uphold the often intersecting rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief for all.’