Prison terms of 5, 9 years for two Cuban dissident artists

• Dissident performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara is sentenced to five years in prison.
• Rapper Maykel Castillo gets nine years for contempt and assault. Both men have already been imprisoned for several months.
• Alcantara was named one of Time’s most influential people of 2021.

A Cuban court sentenced dissident performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara to five years in prison and rapper Maykel Castillo to nine years. Prosecutors announced on Friday.

According to the attorney general’s office, Alcantara was found guilty of “offending the symbols of the homeland, contempt and public disorder,” and Castillo of contempt and assault. Both men have already been imprisoned for several months.

Alcantara is the leader of the San Isidro protest movement (MSI) of artists and intellectuals pressing for free speech and other rights in the communist island nation.

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Castillo co-authored the song “Patria y Vida” (“Fatherland and Life” — a play on Fidel Castro’s “Fatherland or Death” slogan) which has become a refrain for protesters and government critics, but has angered the authorities.

Alcantara was arrested on July 11 last year when he set out to join thousands of Cubans who took to the streets in unprecedented protests against the government.

He has been held in prison since then, awaiting trial, and his family have said he was in poor health.

Alcantara was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2021, and is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

The United States and others have repeatedly called for his release.

Castillo, known as Latin Grammy winner “Osorbo,” has been in prison since May last year.

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He is charged with “resistance,” “contempt,” and “aggression” for taking part in a smaller protest in Havana a year ago.

Prosecutors had sought prison sentences of seven and ten years for the pair.