Rosa María Payá went to the Ministry of Justice in Cuba to review the case of her dad Oswaldo Payá and friend Harold Cepero

 Justice for Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero

Rosa María Payá at the Cuban Ministry of Justice (twitter)

Today, February 27, 2017 at 10:30 am Rosa María Payá delivered to the Ministry of Justice of Cuba an appeal for a judicial review to Maria Esther Reus González, Minister of Justice. In accordance with the procedures of Cuban criminal law, she presented an appeal for a judicial review of the conviction of Angel Carromero for the events that caused the death of her father, Oswaldo Payá, and her friend Harold Cepero.

Rosa María expressed that:

"According to Cuban law, anyone can request a review of a criminal case and I decided to do it not only because Angel Carromero alleged that another car had intentionally hit the car he was driving, but also because the rules of due process were violated when he was prevented from providing expert evidence which would determine if the event was provoked. I submit the request for judicial review to the competent authorities: the Minister of Justice, the President of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General. With this process, the last legal possibility of discussing the case in Cuba is exhausted. By law, one of these authorities must respond within 90 days. Consequently, we remain waiting, without prejudice to the allegations and with evidence that we will present in various international legal forums.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante died under circumstances that point to an extrajudicial killing carried out by the Castro regime's intelligence services on July 22, 2012.  World leaders and human rights defenders in 2013 called for an inquiry into deaths of Oswaldo and Harold, among them was South African Nobel Peace Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante killed on 7/22/12

On July 22, 2015, the third anniversary of the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, the New York based Human Rights Foundation released a report:

"...highlighting the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the official government investigation following Payá’s death in 2012. HRF has documented numerous due process violations, including damning witness accounts, a grossly inadequate autopsy examination, and other key pieces of evidence that were overlooked by the Cuban judicial system. HRF’s report concludes that the “evidence, which was deliberately ignored, strongly suggests that the events of July 22, 2012 were not an accident, but instead the result of a car crash directly caused by agents of the state.”

Later in the day Rosa María Payá delivered copies of the appeal also to the Supreme Court and the General Prosecutor's Office. Over Facebook she streamed a live video explaining what she was doing. For more information, visit CubaDecide and the Latin-American Youth Network for Democracy or e-mail red@juventudlac.org