La Habana, Monday, 31 January 2011. Radio Progreso Alternativa (RPA).
The Provincial Court of Havana sentenced those responsible for the death of 26 mentally ill inmates, a shocking event which took place approximately a year ago, at the city´s Psychiatric Hospital.
According to the official Cuban TV midday newsreel from today, sanctions range from 5 to 15 years of imprisonment as applied to a variety of accountabilities in the abandonment of disabled individuals, embezzlement and negligence in the custody of public goods.
As guilty of the first two offenses, the hospital´s director, Wilfredo Castillo Donate, the vice-manager, Roberto Maza Izquierdo, and Josefina Díaz Arango, head of the nutrition department, were respectively sentenced to 15, 14 and 12 years of prison.
Ariana Ramos Saínz, vice-director of the clinical and chirurgical department and the vice-director of the nursing department, Ivo Noa González were sentenced to 10 years for abandonment, whereas Susana Borges Díaz, vice-director of psychiatry received a 7 years sentence.
The embezzlers: Miguel Villalobos, head of the warehouse, 10 years of prison; Álvaro Castañeda Rodríguez, responsible of frozen goods, 9 years; Dawry Márquez Matamoros, head of the kitchen, 6 years; Néstor Díaz García, head of the kitchen and service department, 6 years; Dionisio Alfaro Feijóo, second in charge of the same areas 6 years; Jorge Lay González, cook, 6 years; Gerardo Míguez Callejas, head of supplies, 5 years.
The Cuban population was expecting a strong sanction, which effectively happened, since, as it appeared in the official Granma newspaper, it became clear during the trial that the victims were malnourished, deprived of care as well as of basic items.
Ahl
