A leading Cuban human rights group on Monday urged governments around the world to petition Havana to spare the lives of army deserters who could face a firing squad for allegedly killing soldiers as they fled military bases.
The statement by the non-governmental Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation referred to a deadly attempted hijacking at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport last week, as well as a previously unreported December shootout and escape in eastern Cuba.
Signed by veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, the statement noted that Cuban military law calls for capital punishment in desertion cases for anyone older than 20. The two cases of escaped soldiers involved six men, only two of whom were old enough to face a death penalty.
The statement called on organizations and governments around the world to protest capital punishment in Cuba.
The government's swift execution of three men convicted of hijacking a Havana passenger ferry in April 2003 — a case in which no one was killed — led to international protests, which were largely ignored by Cuban authorities.
Sanchez's committee said that precedent means executions could be on the way in the desertion cases.
The government also almost always ignores what Sanchez says and refuses to legally recognize his committee.
In the most recent case of desertion, three young men who had been performing their mandatory military service shot their way out of the Managua base southeast of the Cuban capital late last month, killing at least one soldier.
Despite a widespread manhunt, they avoided capture until they allegedly commandeered a city bus before dawn on Thursday, forced it to drive to the airport and loaded eight of its passengers aboard an empty jetliner they demanded be flown to the US.
Officials say they shot and killed an army officer who had been on the bus before a gunbattle at the airport led to the capture of two of the escaped soldiers. The third soldier was arrested earlier.
The escaped soldiers were identified by the government as Alain Forbus and Leandro Cerezo, both 19, and Yoan Torres, 21, the only one apparently old enough to face the death penalty. It was unclear which of the three was captured before the attempted hijacking and the killing of the army lieutenant colonel who tried to stop it.
The government blamed US policies that let most Cubans stay if they reach US soil for encouraging violent attempts to get there.
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