But we have tribunals. Prosecutors have accused the four government opponents of inciting sedition. They were arrested in July 1997 for criticizing a Communist Party document that they said did not present solutions to Cuba's severe economic problems. The charges also included encouraging Cubans not to vote, urging international businessmen not to invest in Cuba and asking Cuban exiles to encourage relatives on the island to undertake acts of civil disobedience. State prosecutors have asked for a six-year sentence for Vladimiro Roca, a former military pilot and son of late Cuban Communist Party leader Blas Roca, and five years each for lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano, engineer Felix Bonne and economist Marta Beatriz Roque.
Relatives say the defendants expect to be convicted.
On Thursday, the official Communist Party newspaper Granma lashed out at international criticism of the dissidents' trial, charging the defendants of having ties to the U.S. government and exile groups. The trial has drawn criticism not only from the United States, but from the island's biggest trade partners, Spain and Canada, and other parts of Europe and Latin America. U.S. diplomat's behavior criticized The top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, Michael Kozak, condemned the judicial procedure of the trial's first day and protested when security forces refused to allow him, as well as other diplomats and journalists, into the trial. Cuba filed a protest to the U.S. government over Kozak's behavior. We don't have to jail them for 20 years.