Cuba: Ex Minister Gil to Be Tried for Espionage on Tuesday
Behind closed doors
The regime denies the family’s demand for a transparent and public trial, something many Cubans are also requesting.
HAVANA TIMES – Through a brief statement read almost without looking up from the paper by the anchor of the noon news on Canal Caribe, the People’s Supreme Court announced that the trial of former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernandez—the highest-ranking Cuban official to face prosecution in decades—will take place in less than 24 hours. The hearing, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. this Tuesday, November 11, will be conducted by the Supreme Court’s Chamber for Crimes Against State Security.
According to the court’s statement, the trial will be held behind closed doors for “reasons of national security,” invoking Articles 153 of the Constitution and 477.1 of the Criminal Procedure Law. Only “the parties and persons authorized by the court” will have access—a decision that confirms the opaqueness with which the government has handled the case since the minister’s dismissal in February 2024.
The accused’s sister, María Victoria Gil Fernandez, told 14ymedio that the family had no prior notice and said she was “shocked” by the news. “It’s outrageous,” said the former Cuban television presenter. She also explained that the case will be handled in two separate trials, with tomorrow’s involving the espionage charge, for which the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a 30-year prison sentence. However, the Supreme Court’s statement does not mention the word “espionage” nor does it specify the offense for which the former minister will be tried.
A source close to the case reported that Gil’s relatives don’t even know who the “authorized persons” are or whether they are included among them. Vicky Gil said she managed to speak briefly with her niece, Laura María Gil González, who has restricted communications and told her that she and her brother—both children of Alejandro Gil—would try to attend the trial. “They have followed the investigation throughout these months and are completely certain that it’s all a manipulation. My brother is not a spy and never will be,” said the ex-minister’s sister, who is a lawyer by training.
The court’s decision cancels the demand that Laura María had made on social media for the trial to be transparent and open to the public, so that citizens could directly learn the arguments, evidence, and details of the alleged crimes of her father. “If they’re so sure of their case, why hide it?” she asked, calling for a process that would not be limited to official notes and controlled leaks.
Her stance resonated across digital spaces, where messages of support mixed with criticism and speculation. Even former Cuban spy Rene Gonzalez published a Facebook post that diverged from the official narrative by calling for an open trial. “I’m going to swim against the current,” he wrote, reminding readers that “Alejandro Gil is not guilty until proven guilty in court. The presumption of innocence is one of the cornerstones of due process.” Gonzalez clarified that he did not personally know the former minister but expressed gratitude toward Gil’s former subordinates: “I have only feelings of gratitude toward them.” He also criticized the “explosive statement from the Prosecutor’s Office, after such a deafening silence,” which, in his view, sparked “a debate that does us more harm than good.”
The former member of the Wasp Network invoked precedents for televising the trial: “This, of course, means that the demand for a public, open, and transparent trial should be met. The 1989 Cases 1 and 2, or the trial of Marcos Rodríguez for the Humboldt 7 crime, could serve as references. We are not in a position to ask people to believe on faith.” His post ended with a call for calm, transparency, public oversight, and accountability.
Reactions both within and outside the ranks of officialdom, along with the mobilization of the international press following Laura María Gil’s appeal, may have precipitated the regime’s decision to proceed with the trial.
The official Supreme Court communiqué emphasized that “due process” had been guaranteed, arguing that both the accused and his defense had access to the case file and the prosecution’s preliminary findings, and had presented their responses. However, neither the specific charges nor the evidence supporting them have been publicly disclosed—an absence of transparency reminiscent of other high-profile criminal cases on the island.
Alejandro Gil Fernandez is being defended by attorney Abel Sola Lopez, who has extensive experience in trials involving state security. One such case was in 2017, when he represented Alina López Miyares and her husband, Félix Martín Milanés Fajardo, sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison, respectively, for espionage. That proceeding in the Justice Hall of the Military Court of Marianao, was also conducted behind closed doors and “without access for the defendants’ families.”
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.