Activist Kirenia Yalit Núñez filed a Habeas Corpus petition on behalf of rapper Maykel Castillo, who is under house arrest and is not allowed to leave his home or receive visitors.
Between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. on November 27, 2020, officers of the National Revolutionary Police, in total disregard of the legal requirements established for this purpose in the Law of Criminal Procedure, articles 218 and 219, broke into the house located at Damas Street number 955 between San Isidro and Avenida del Puerto, municipality of Old Havana, Havana province, headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, resulting in the arrest, among others, without any legal warrant, of the rapper Maykel Castillo.
Castillo was there with other members of the Movement, on a hunger strike in defense of full freedom of expression, association, creation, and dissemination of art and culture, and to empower civil society toward a democratic future. He was later taken in a patrol car to the police station located at the corner of Cuba and Chacón streets in Old Havana, without having been tested for the virus that causes COVID-19.
At approximately 11:30 pm, he was taken by members of the National Revolutionary Police to his home located at 408 Lamparilla Street, between Bernaza and Villegas Streets, in the municipality of Old Havana. To this day, without any legal justification, the police officers are preventing him from leaving, violating his right to freedom of movement, a right guaranteed by Article 52 of the Constitution of the Republic.
Undeniably, Maykel Castillo Pérez is subject to a kind of precautionary measure of house arrest not ordered by a competent authority, thus disrespecting what is mandated by the current Constitution of the Republic in its article 94, I quote: “Every person, as a guarantee of their legal security, enjoys due process in both the judicial and administrative spheres and, consequently, enjoys the following rights:
The legal violation we are denouncing consists specifically of the fact that the police authorities have violated, and continue to violate, Maykel Castillo's personal freedom and freedom of movement by preventing him, without any legitimate reason, from leaving his home and traveling freely throughout the national territory. They also prohibit him from receiving visitors at his residence.