Cuban court to consider suit against Ministry of Justice
In an apparent first, a Cuban court is considering a lawsuit that could
force the government to officially recognize a group of dissident lawyers.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
In a small but rare legal victory in a country where the courts
faithfully follow the government line, a dissident Cuban lawyer has won
the initial stages of a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice.
A Havana court first agreed to consider Wilfredo Vallín's suit seeking
official recognition for his group of dissident attorneys, then ordered
the ministry to defend itself.
``I don't have high hopes for this in the long run because I know how
things work in Cuba, but our victories so far are pretty rare,'' said
the 62-year-old Vallín.
``To have a case against a ministry even admitted in court is something
extraordinary. That's never happened,'' said Camilo Loret de Mola, a
veteran Havana lawyer now living in Miami.
Cuba's legal system is based on the concept of ``socialist legality,''
which argues that the role of the law is to promote stability and the
development of a socialist society.
Judges and prosecutors loyally follow the political line of the
communist-run government, appeals against official decisions are
routinely dismissed and dissidents brought to trial are almost
automatically convicted, said Loret de Mola.
Lawyers must work for the government or government-approved Collective
Law Offices, he added, and any attorney who spends too much time
defending dissidents can find himself on the street.
But all those hurdles did not deter the Cuban Juridical Association, a
group of about 30 lawyers founded in 2008 to provide independent legal
advice on a nonprofit basis, usually to government critics.
In April of 2009, Vallín, an association leader and 1992 graduate of the
University of Havana Law School, took the first step required to
officially register the group.
Acting as a member of the association, he asked the Justice Ministry's
Registry of Associations to certify that no other group had registered
the same name. If the answer was no, he could then request an official
registration.
The registry never replied. Leading dissident Hector Palacios recalled
trying to register at least eight groups since 1998, ranging from
political parties to an association of independent libraries. He never
got a single answer.
``Sometimes they even got mad and refused to receive our requests,''
Palacios told El Nuevo Herald by phone from Havana.
That's where other groups abandoned their efforts to be registered, said
Laritza Diversant, a member of the Cuban Juridical Association who
writes a blog on legal issues, Las Leyes de Laritza.
But not Vallín. He filed a second request with the registry, and after
again getting no answer appealed to Justice Minister María Esther Reus
González. Still, no answer.
So he sued, arguing that Cuba's Law for Civil, Administrative and Labor
Procedures gave any private citizen the right to demand a reply from the
ministry.
In his first surprise, the court officially accepted Vallín's filing on
June 29. Then on July 28 a three-judge panel ordered Reus González to
appoint lawyers to appear in the case on behalf of her ministry --
another first. She named two ministry staff attorneys on Aug. 6.
The court has set no date for its ruling, though Vallín said he has
little doubt that in the end he will lose.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/01/1801731/cuban-court-to-consider-suit-against.html
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