Page:British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 144 (1952).djvu/310

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286
Cuba

Persons arrested or imprisoned for political or social reasons shall be confined in separate quarters from common criminals, and shall not be required to do any labour whatever nor subjected to the prison regulations for common prisoners.

No arrested person or prisoner shall be kept isolated.

Violations of this order shall be tried by only the regular courts, whatever the place, the circumstances, and the persons participating in the arrest.

27. Every arrested person shall be placed at liberty, or delivered to the competent judicial authority, within 24 hours following his arrest.

Every arrested person shall be set free or imprisoned by a judicial decision stating the reasons for it, within 72 hours after the arrested person is placed at the disposition of the competent judge. The interested person shall within the same period be notified of the decision rendered.

Persons imprisoned but not yet convicted shall be kept in places distinct and completely separate from those utilised for serving sentences, and those so imprisoned cannot be compelled to do any work whatever or be subjected to the prison regulations for those serving sentences.

28. No one shall be indicted or condemned except by a competent judge or court, by virtue of laws antedating the crime and with the formalities and guarantees established by them. No sentence shall be pronounced against an indicted person in default nor shall anyone be condemned in a criminal cause without being heard. Neither shall anyone be compelled to testify against himself, or against his or her spouse or relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity.

No violence or coercion of any kind shall be exercised on persons to compel them to testify. All testimony obtained in violation of this precept shall be null, and those responsible shall be subject to the penalties fixed by law.

29. Everyone who is arrested or imprisoned outside of the cases or without the formalities and guarantees specified by the Constitution and the law shall be placed at liberty, on his own request or that of any other person, without the necessity of a power of attorney or the services of a lawyer, by means of summary habeas corpus proceedings before the regular courts.