Guantanamo.- Five citizens of the municipality of Yateras were prosecuted in an exemplary trial for the crime of soil contamination by the Municipal People’s Court of that eastern town. The court found them guilty and sentenced them to prison terms.
During the oral and public hearing, documentary, testimonial, and expert evidence was presented that demonstrated the guilt of the defendants. They received sentences ranging from two years and seven months to one year and six months of imprisonment, commensurate with the severity of the violation.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants were engaged in illegal gold mining in Piedra la Vela, on the banks of the Toa River, a tangled forested area belonging to the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, a World Heritage Site.
As additional sanctions, the defendants were subject to confiscation of the instruments used in the criminal activity, deprivation of public rights, and a ban on passport applications and leaving the country while serving their sentences.
The procedural guarantees established in the Constitution and the oral trial were observed throughout the proceedings and at the trial.
Both the defendants and the Prosecutor’s Office have the right to appeal the sentence.
As part of the fight against criminal activity, corruption, antisocial behavior, drugs, illegal activities, and social indiscipline, the IV National Exercise to Prevent and Combat Crime is taking place this week in the province, as it is throughout the country.
The exercise aims to increase the efforts of political, social, and grassroots organizations, state and government agencies, and the Ministry of the Interior to prevent and combat these harmful phenomena.
