Javier Ernesto Martín Gutiérrez faces two new charges

Javier Ernesto Martín Gutiérrez, a Cuban athlete known as “Spiderman,” faces two new criminal charges: contempt and propaganda against the constitutional order. His partner, Lisandra Cuza, said those offenses were added to the initial public-disorder charge and that the athlete remained in pretrial detention in October. The expansion came after a court rejected a judicial-review request filed by the defense, Cuza said. The case began after Martín Gutiérrez protested in Havana against power outages.

Cuza placed notification of the court decision on September 16. She said a court document responded to the review request and informed them that the two charges had been added. She particularly questioned the contempt accusation, saying it had been removed early in the investigation because, in her view, there was no evidence to sustain it. Its later addition, together with the propaganda charge, expanded the accusation against the athlete.

The arrest occurred April 24 after Martín Gutiérrez protested for several days from the balcony of his home in Marianao, Havana. During the demonstrations, he criticized power outages and the country’s social conditions. The 34-year-old athlete and Cuban mixed-martial-arts champion had remained jailed since then. The protest preceded the initial public-disorder charge to which the two additional accusations were later added.

After his detention, he was taken to a Marianao police station and later to Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana. In late May, he was transferred to Combinado del Este prison, where he remained when the expanded charges became known.

Cuza said that after learning of the new charges, the defense lawyer went to Villa Marista to review the case file and speak with the investigator. According to her account, he could not examine the documents and was told the file remained at the court. She also questioned why contempt reappeared among the charges after having been removed at the beginning of the proceedings.