Spain Urges Carromero to Go to Court…

… if he has new evidence in the Payá case

HAVANA TIMES — Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo urged Angel Carromero today to go to court if he has “new evidence” on the accident in which Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya died, and for which he was sentenced in October as the driver.

García-Margallo spoke after Carromero said in an interview published on Wednesday by “The Washington Post” that the accident occurred when a vehicle he was driving was intentionally rammed from behind.

Besides Paya, another opposition member, Harold Cepero, also died in the crash that occurred last July.

The Spanish government “has no evidence” that things happened differently than Carromero himself said at his trial in Cuba, said Garcia-Margallo. If he has other information, “he should go to court,” he noted.

The Spanish foreign minister repeated what he had said on Wednesday, that the memorandum of understanding signed with the Cuban authorities allowed Carromero’s repatriation to Spain to serve the rest of the sentence that was imposed in Cuba.

This document, which was signed with the consent of Carromero, a young politician of the Popular Party (PP), did not reflect what Carromero said to “The Washington Post”.

Carromero was sentenced in October by a Cuban court to four years in prison for manslaughter for “reckless behavior.” The young man was extradited to Spain in December to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, following an agreement between Madrid and Havana based on a bilateral agreement on the enforcement of criminal sentences.

Carromero is serving his sentence in Spain in “open regime”, controlled electronically via a bracelet.