Havana court sentences influencer Anna Bensi and her mother to two years
A Havana court found content creator Anna Bensi and her mother guilty of distributing a video of a police officer. Both could receive two years of restricted liberty.
Havana court rules against Cuban influencer over police officer video
A court in the municipality of Havana East declared content creator Anna Sofía Benítez—known on social media as Anna Bensi—and her mother, Caridad Silvente, guilty on Thursday, according to infobae.com. The sentence requested is two years of restricted liberty for each of them.
"The court concluded that my mother and I were guilty of the crime and they sentenced each of us to two years of restricted liberty and this is really an injustice," Bensi told the press after the oral hearing concluded.
The case originated following the recording and distribution of a video in which a police officer appears who arrived at both their homes to deliver a summons in March.
The lawyer for the accused, Roberto Ortega, explained to EFE that the court will issue its ruling in writing in approximately 15 days. Ortega clarified that there is a legal difference between deprivation of liberty and restriction of liberty: the latter allows the person to lead "a normal life," although with restrictions such as a prohibition on leaving the country. Once the sentence is notified, the parties will have ten working days to file an appeal, a decision that, the lawyer stressed, "depends only on Bensi and her mother."
The Cuban Interior Ministry published an extensive statement—reproduced by state media and shared on social networks—in which, without explicitly referring to the case, it warned that "a court case is not decided on social media" and stressed that "recording is not a crime, distributing without consent may be." The statement argues that the Cuban Penal Code criminalises offences against personal and family privacy, and that what is being tried is not the act of recording, but "the unauthorised distribution of the image."
The institutional statement also asked not to "turn every case into a show" and recalled that "freedom of expression is a fundamental right," although it clarified that "it does not protect the exposure of others' privacy."
On social media, Cuban activists, influencers and users inside and outside the island expressed solidarity with Bensi, denouncing what they called "censorship of free expression." The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) also denounced a "repressive operation by the Cuban regime" intended to prevent independent journalists, activists and religious representatives from attending the trial.
Cuban-American congressmen María Elvira Salazar, Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Giménez also spoke out, pointing out that the Havana Government "continues intimidating and silencing those who dare to raise their voices."
Source: Google News CU — La Habana