The article of the Cuban Penal Code used to convict Anna Bensi and her mother for posting a video on social media

Anna Bensi left the Cojímar courthouse and described an operation that had surrounded the day's proceedings: the regime's police prevented independent journalists and activists from accompanying her to the court. Yoani Sánchez denounced a police presence that blocked her from leaving her home, while Camila Acosta and the team of the Fuera de la Caja project were also placed under surveillance. The Municipal People's Court of East Havana sentenced Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente, known as Anna Bensi, and her mother, Caridad Silvente Laffita, on October 1 to two years of limitation of liberty each. This was reported by Árbol Invertido, an independent Cuban outlet. The sentence does not involve prison, but it does entail restrictions on movement and a ban on leaving the country. The prosecution had requested two years of deprivation of liberty for Anna Bensi and two years of limitation of liberty for her mother, according to Árbol Invertido. The court ruled out imprisoning the young woman and ended up applying the same sentence to both. It declared them guilty of recording and distributing the video of a police officer; the sentence is served outside prison but under judicial supervision, with leaving the country prohibited. The defense attorney, Roberto Ortega, explained to EFE, the Spanish news agency, that the oral ruling must be confirmed in writing in about 15 days. After notification, mother and daughter will have 10 business days to appeal, although the decision "depends only on Bensi and her mother," he told Diario Las Américas. The same newspaper detailed that the hearing, initially scheduled for September 17, had been postponed and finally lasted around four hours. Upon leaving the court, the content creator was emphatic: "This really is an injustice." Before entering, she had given statements to EFE and NBC, the American television network, and had defended her right to express opinions about politics on social media: "It's not fair, it's not fair, none of us are criminals, we are simply expressing ourselves through a screen, which is not a weapon, it's a telephone." The Cuban content creator and activist Anna Sofía Benítez Silvente speaks with journalists upon her arrival at the Municipal Court this Thursday, in Havana (Cuba). EFE/ Ernesto Mastracusa The case dates back to March 10, 2026, when Ministry of the Interior non-commissioned officer Yoel Leodán Rabaza Ramos arrived in civilian clothes at the home of the accused, in Alamar, to deliver a summons from State Security. Mother and daughter recorded the encounter and shared it on social media, according to Árbol Invertido. The charge was based on Article 393 of the Cuban Penal Code, which punishes "acts against personal and family privacy, one's own image and voice, the identity of another person and their data." EFE specified that this provision includes an aggravating circumstance when the content is reproduced or transmitted on social networks, with penalties of up to five years of deprivation of liberty. The case was dismissed and reopened on July 6, 2026, following a new complaint by the officer. The Cuban police defended the process in a Facebook post on October 1: "Social media is not a lawless territory. The ease of posting does not exempt one from responsibility for what is disseminated." Zamira Marrero Morgado, the judge who convicted activist Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente, for having recorded a police officer in Havana. The proceedings were conducted by Judge Zamira Marrero Morgado, president of the Municipal People's Court of East Havana. According to Árbol Invertido, the magistrate served on tribunals that tried participants in the July 11, 2021 protests in La Güinera, with prosecutorial requests of up to 30 years in prison for sedition. CiberCuba confirmed that Marrero Morgado also presided over the hearing against Bensi and her mother, and that she had previously rejected a defense request to nullify the proceedings. The Baptist Convention of Western Cuba backed both women in a statement on September 29, joined by the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba, the Methodist Church of Cuba, and the Assemblies of God of Cuba. The institution demanded respect for due process: "Amid so much unpunished crime in Cuba, it is unacceptable that they be sentenced to prison." The religious organization asked its congregations to stand with the accused: "Out of an elementary sense of justice, we cannot, we do not want to, and we will not leave them alone." According to activist Jenny Pantoja, only Pastor Arturo Leal and Bárbaro Marrero, president of the Board of Directors of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, managed to enter the court alongside the accused. Two people pray kneeling on the geographic silhouette of Cuba while a large hand-shaped shadow extends over them. (Illustrative image Infobae)The Cuban writer Amir Valle called for a public show of solidarity: "Everyone should form a human chain of solidarity that embraces and protects these two dignified women this first of October." The intellectual warned that "leaving them alone would be unworthy." Among those detained that day was Christian activist David Espinosa Martínez, taken to a police unit in La Lisa, along with Pastor Rolando Pérez Lora and the surveillance of his collaborator Vladimir Turró, according to the tally by Árbol Invertido.