MIAMI, United States. – Michael Carey Abadin, a Canadian citizen whose mother is Cuban, was arrested this past July 12 in Havana. He remains in prison and is being forced to do hard labor, according information his family and advocates gave to CBS News.
Twenty-three-year-old Abadín was with his mother in Old Havana when the anti-government protests started this past July 11. The young man was arrested on the next day for allegedly throwing a rock at a police car.
He is being accused of “damages to public property” which carries a possible term of five to six years in prison.
Ivis Abadin, Michael Carey Abadin’s mother, states that prior to July 11, her son already had planned to return to Canada, had even purchased his ticket, but had been unable to travel due to the constant flight cancellations on account of COVID-19.
Abadin adds that, since his arrest, her son’s health has deteriorated. First, he contracted COVID-19 while under custody of Cuban authorities, and then he developed hepatitis and [non-genital] herpes, the latter a very common condition in Cuban jails.
The young man’s health deteriorated to such a level that he was transferred to the infirmary at Jóvenes de Occidente prison, in the outskirts of Havana.
Ivis Abadin stated that after CBS News made public details about the case last October 23, a captain from Cuba’s national police paid her a visit.
After the visit, her son was removed from the infirmary and incorporated to a work brigade. According to his mother, now he is “cutting down brushwood with a cleaver.”
“My son is in worse conditions now than he was before. He has wounds on his legs that are oozing,” Abadin told CBS News.
According to CBS News, authorities at the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa or in Havana have not answered any of their inquiries regarding the arrest of Michael Carey Abadín, or about the charges being brought against him.
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