DIARIO DE CUBA journalist Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Camejo has been detained since Sunday and is awaiting trial, to be held on Tuesday, July 7, on a charge that his relatives are still unaware of, his brother Leonel Rodríguez told DIARIO DE CUBA.
"He’s going to be held until July 7, when they’re going to hold his trial," said Rodríguez, who has not been able to communicate with the reporter to verify the details of his arrest.
"There are several versions. According to one it was 'disregard for authority'. In another he was supporting the protests following the death of the young Hansel Ernesto Hernández at the hands of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR). And another says that he was filming a video," he added.
"When I went yesterday to pick up some things to take to him, where he is being held, a neighbor told me that they had taken him from his house, so I don't know which version to believe, because I haven't seen him yet."
Leonel says that he was able to confirm that Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Camejo "was transferred to the criminal processing center known as the Vivac" in Havana.
The DIARIO DE CUBA journalist was subjected to an interrogation last April during which State Security agents accused him of "spreading false news" and told him that there were proceedings underway against him for this reason.
The Cuban regime's political police have gone after independent journalists during the pandemic, violating the government's own isolation measures.
Four other DIARIO DE CUBA journalists have received summons and threats since March: Yoe Suárez, Waldo Fernández Cuenca, Manuel Alejandro León and Boris González Arenas.
Several independent reporters have also been fined up to 3,000 pesos under Decree Law 370, including Camila Acosta and Julio Antonio Aleaga, with Cubanet, and Mónica Baró, with El Estornudo.
All have been threatened with retaliation for doing their jobs. Rodríguez Camejo's arrest came while all across the island a major police operation is trying to foil protests against police violence and racism, announced by activists and members of independent civil society outraged by the death of the young black man at the hands of the police.
