Cuba: El Sexto’s International Lawyer Expelled from Cuba After False Detention and Interrogation

"Considering the overt lack of an independent judicial system in Cuba, international public awareness and pressure is the best hope for El Sexto’s release." - Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of HRF

NEW YORK (December 19, 2016) - Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest, harassing interrogations, and forcible deportation of American attorney Kimberley Motley from Havana, Cuba. Motley was in Cuba for three days as the international attorney for political prisoner Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado, a celebrated Cuban artist imprisoned since Castro’s death more than twenty-one days ago. 
 

Motley was taken by plainclothes security agents as she was trying to hold a press conference outside of the National Capitol Building in Havana. Motley was arrested along with dissident punk rock artist Gorki Águila and democracy activist Luis Alberto Mariño from the civil society group Cuba Decide (an organization devoted to the holding of free elections in Cuba). Motley was arrested without any explanation and interrogated for hours at an unknown police station, after which she was allowed to go to her Havana hotel. At midnight on Friday, police officers appeared at Motley’s hotel, and interrogated her again for around an hour. She was threatened with a new arrest if she failed to board a flight on Saturday morning.

“After being arrested and detained for several hours, I underwent a new round of interrogation at my hotel after midnight. The police knew I was scheduled to depart at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, and told me I better get on the plane or else I would be imprisoned,” said Kimberley Motley in a phone interview with HRF. “Once at the airport, however, they again took my passport for several hours, forcing me to miss my flight. While they did not allow me to see Danilo, I believe my three days there and the abusive arrest I was the victim of, allowed me to have a fuller understanding as to what dissidents like Gorki or Tito, who volunteered to be my translators, suffer on a regular basis, and to reinforce my will to help imprisoned artists like Danilo. I will continue to represent Danilo internationally, and, since I’m an American citizen and Cuba has normalized relations with my country, I will continue to push for his release and, if necessary, will attempt to visit him at the Combinado del Este prison again soon,” she added.

“When she volunteered to go to Havana, Motley, was fully aware that the judicial system of a totalitarian country where the Code of Ethics for lawyers calls on them to ‘follow the example of Fidel Castro Ruz’ would not be friendly. Nevertheless, Motley courageously risked her freedom to try to see El Sexto and to learn about his case,” said Javier El-Hage, chief legal officer of HRF. “While Motley’s ambitious purpose of having El Sexto freed has not yet been achieved, her arbitrary detention along with prodemocracy activists Gorki and Tito for trying to see El Sexto, helps make his case more widely known, and, as a result, may contribute greatly to his liberation. Considering the overt lack of an independent judicial system in Cuba, international public awareness and pressure is the best hope for El Sexto’s release,” he said.

Kimberley Motley is an international litigator who currently works on commercial, criminal, and human rights issues in every continent except Antarctica including in countries such as Afghanistan, Malaysia, and the U.S. Motley is the founder of Motley Legal Services and the co-founder of Motley Consulting International. In 2009, she became the first and only foreigner to litigate cases in Afghanistan's criminal and commercial courts. In 2015, the award-winning documentary "Motley's Law" premiered at film festivals across the world. On a pro bono basis, Motley collaborates with HRF’s legal team based in New York to provide international legal representation and seek the release prisoners of conscience worldwide.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

Contact: Contact: (212) 246-8486, advocacy@hrf.org.

TAKE ACTION! Sign a petition for the release of prisoner of conscience Danilo Maldonado Machado and help to expose and denounce the crimes of the Cuban regime:

https://goo.gl/n0qdPw

CONTACT Cuban officials and ask them for the release of Maldonado:

Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez, Ambassador, Cuban Permanent Mission at the United Nations. Address: 315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY, 10016. Telephone: (212) 689-7215. Fax: (212) 689 9073. Email: cuba_onu@cubanmission.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubanMissionUN.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CUBAONU.

Please let us know if you took action. CC your communication to: advocacy@hrf.org.

Obama's Cuba Legacy: Legitimizing tyranny, marginalizing dissidents & deteriorating human rights

An old, discredited policy repackaged as new delivers same failed results

President Obama leaves office while General Raul Castro stays on in power

The White House claimed in a tweet on December 16, 2016 that they had "opened up a new chapter with the people of Cuba." There is nothing new in what the Obama administration has done in Cuba because it is a retread off the old, discredited approach of embracing dictators while focusing on narrow economic interests. Google is now partnering with ETECSA, the Castro regime's telecommunications monopoly that engages in systematic censorship. Other companies have engaged in discrimination based on national origin in the United States in order to satisfy regime demands.

Meanwhile Cubans continue to be jailed for what they think and the press has picked up on three high profile cases of a medical doctor, a lawyer and an artist. The two year anniversary of the new Cuba policy also coincided with the arrest of a U.S. citizen, Kimberley Motley, an international attorney who wanted to hold a press conference to discuss the case of Danilo Maldonado, the jailed Cuban artist.

Ben Rhodes published a blog entry claiming "two years of progress" citing progress in the private sector in Cuba but failed to mention that the Cuban military has expanded its control of the economy in the island since 2014. The White House has also been shy about mentioning the collapse in trade between U.S. companies and Cuba over the past two years. Nor does anyone want to mention that the peak year of trade was 2008, the last year of the Bush Administration. Instead the focus is on the latest celebrity visiting the island for a photo opportunity.

Cuba may have become a celebrity magnet over the past two years but Cubans began to flee the island in huge numbers that had not been seen since the Clinton Administration. The reason for the exodus can be seen in the dramatic increase in politically motivated arbitrary detentions in Cuba during the Obama Administration that has coincided with the Castro regime's heightened violence against Cubans who dissent.

Human rights have worsened in Cuba as the dictatorship has been legitimized internationally by the Obama Administration's new Cuba policy. The consequences have gone beyond the symbolic moment of silence for Fidel Castro at the United Nations Human Rights Council but to the European Union's delinkage of human rights from its common position on Cuba to engage with the Castro regime. This was a policy that had been in place for 20 years.

This deteriorating human rights situation, evaporating international solidarity with Cuban democrats along with the legitimization of the dictatorship is consolidating the dictatorship and prolonging its rule. Ben Rhodes claims that the "goal" of the new Cuba policy "was clear: to help the Cuban people live a better life", but the reality is that things have gotten worse on all fronts in Cuba. By this measure Obama Administration's Cuba policy is a failure.

International lawyer arrested in Havana, Cuba while trying to hold a press conference

Obama's Presidency ends as it began with an innocent American arbitrarily arrested by the Castro regime. The results of The White House Cuba policy become evident.

International lawyer Kimberly Motley arrested in Cuba

URGENT: KIMBERLEY MOTLEY, EL SEXTO'S INTERNATIONAL LAWYER, ARRESTED IN HAVANA, CUBA, AND TAKEN TO UNKNOWN LOCATION

NEW YORK (December 16, 2016) — Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest of American attorney Kimberley Motley in Havana, Cuba, at 4:09 p.m.today. Motley is in Cuba as the international attorney for political prisoner Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado, a celebrated Cuban artist imprisoned since Castro’s death twenty-one days ago.

Motley was taken by plainclothes security agents as she was trying to hold a press conference outside of the National Capitol Building in Havana. According to witnesses, Motley was arrested along with dissident punk rock artist Gorki Águila and democracy activist Luis Alberto Mariño from the civil society group Cuba Decide (an organization devoted to the holding of free elections in Cuba).

URGENT: Cuban state security has just detained @dmmelsexto's lawyer @KimMotleysLaw w/ @ViolinistaTito & #Gorky in Havana pic.twitter.com/lYDxdVbz9H

— HRF (@HRF) December 16, 2016

“This outrageous abuse is the sad reality of Cuba’s ongoing totalitarianism. They first arrest pro-democracy activist El Sexto for criticizing and mocking the deceased dictator, and now they arrest the lawyer that has traveled to Cuba to defend him,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. “We call on Raúl Castro to order the release of Motley, Águila, and Mariño’s unconditionally and immediately,” he added.

Kimberley Motley is an international litigator who currently works on commercial, criminal, and human rights issues in Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Uganda, and the United States. Motley is the founder of Motley Legal Services and the co-founder of Motley Consulting International. In 2009, she became the first and only foreigner to litigate cases in Afghanistan's criminal and commercial courts. In 2015, the documentary "Motley's Law" premiered at film festivals across the world.

Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

Contact: Contact: (212) 246-8486, advocacy@hrf.org.

TAKE ACTION! Sign a petition for the release of prisoner of conscience Danilo Maldonado Machado and help to expose and denounce the crimes of the Cuban regime:

https://goo.gl/n0qdPw                     

CONTACT Cuban officials and ask them for the release of Motley and Maldonado:
Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez, Ambassador, Cuban Permanent Mission at the United Nations. Address: 315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY, 10016. Telephone: (212) 689-7215. Fax: (212) 689 9073. Email: cuba_onu@cubanmission.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubanMissionUN.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CUBAONU.

Please let HRF know if you took action. CC your communication to: advocacy@hrf.org.