Cubalex warns about the arbitrary continued imprisonment of the political prisoner of 11J Lázaro Noel Urgellés Fajardo, whose sentence was due to expire on September 6, and denounces the refusal of the Cuban authorities to hand over the legal documents that explain the alleged change in his release date.
According to information Received by Cubalex, the young man's mother, Mailyn Fajardo, went to the prison on the date scheduled for his release. However, the authorities verbally informed her that Lázaro would remain incarcerated until... January 20, 2028.
As justification, they claimed that compliance with their sanction had been interrupted in November 2024 or 2025, without specifying the year, because they had supposedly been declared "rebel" or "circulated".
So far, the family has not received any document confirming that version or explaining the legal reasons why the date of expiration of the sentence was changed.
The lack of documentation makes it impossible to know the legal basis of the decision, to verify whether procedural guarantees were respected, and to exercise the corresponding legal resources.
The authorities must deliver the Revocation Order
Lázaro had been serving a five-year correctional labor sentence without confinement since July 2022. According to his mother, he reported monthly to sign in and complied with all required court appearances.
In January 2025, the authorities revoked that sanction alleging supposed breaches, including “going out at night,” and they sent Back in prison. He was first held in Valle Grande and later transferred to prison 1580, in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana.
According to the legal analysis carried out by Cubalex, If the correctional labor sanction without confinement was revoked, the court was required to issue a Revocation Order, notify the sanctioned person, and perform a new calculation of the remaining sentence time..
That calculation would determine whether it was appropriate to modify the departure date initially set for September 6, 2026.
If Lázaro had been declared “in contempt” for failing to appear at official summonses, the time spent in that status would not count toward fulfilling his sentence. However, the family has not received any documentation to verify that such a declaration was made, when it occurred, or what its legal consequences were.
Who should submit the documents?
The competent body to revoke a correctional work sanction without confinement is the Execution Chamber of the Provincial Court of Havana.
Therefore, it is up to that judicial body to issue and make available to the sanctioned person the resolution that supports the revocation, as well as the information necessary to know the new calculation of the sentence.
The refusal to hand over the Revocation Order and other documents related to the execution of the sanction leaves Lázaro and his family without the effective possibility of knowing the reasons for his continued imprisonment and legally challenging the decision.
Mailyn Fajardo has gone to various institutions seeking answers. At the Havana Provincial Court, she requested the Revocation Order and other documents related to the enforcement of the sanction, but they refused to provide them.
She also went to the police unit in Aguilera, from where she was referred to the Supreme Court, without obtaining a documented explanation so far.
On September 10, the mother tried again to get answers, but was informed that she would not be attended to until Monday because they were "reviewing some files".
The explanations regarding the alleged rebellion and the length of the sentence remain solely verbal.
A political prisoner from 11J who was due to regain his freedom
Lázaro Noel Urgellés Fajardo was arrested on July 16, 2021, when he was a minor, for participating in the 11J protests.
He was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison. In June 2022, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to five years of correctional labor without confinement.
Since he had spent nearly a year in pretrial detention, that time should have been deducted from his sentence. According to Cubalex's analysis, the sentence should have legally expired in July 2026. However, the court later set his release date for September 6, while other young people in the same case with similar sentences were released in July.
Now, the authorities maintain that he will remain imprisoned until January 2028, without having given the family the documents that justify that decision.
The organization expressed concern about the use of imprisonment as a mechanism of reprisal and political punishment in the case of Lázaro.
The extension of their stay in prison, without the resolutions that support it being delivered, also occurs in a context in which their mother has denounced pressure from State Security against both of them for refusing to cooperate.
These circumstances reinforce concerns about ethe use of the penal system to keep the young man deprived of his liberty, to pressure his family and punish his stance towards the authorities.
Cubalex demands that the competent institutions provide the legal documents that justify the revocation of the sanction, clarify the calculation of the sentence, and guarantee effective access to appeal mechanisms. Until the authorities present a resolution that explains and justifies the change in the release date, Lázaro's family continues to be unaware of the legal basis for his continued imprisonment.