(30 Aug 2008)
1. Pull-out from Tribunal sign to wide exterior of court
2. Media and supporters of Cuban punk rocker Gorki Aguila outside courthouse
3. Police standing at court entrance
4. Police car arriving with Aguila at courthouse
5. Police and Aguila getting out of car UPSOUND: (Spanish) onlookers cheering: "Gorki! Gorki!"; Gorki shouts "Freedom!"
6. Wide of crowd outside courthouse as Aguila is taken inside
7. Police car and crowd outside tribunal
8. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Ciro Diaz, guitarist for "Porno Para Ricardo" band:
"The trial is a political trial, the lawyer was told that it wasn't because of noise. It was about him (Gorki) being anti-social. What do they base the anti-social accusation on? He doesn't vote, he isn't a member of his Neighbourhood Watch. This may seem funny to a foreigner, but that's the way it is. Doesn't vote, doesn't go to the Neighbourhood Watch meetings and writes songs against the Cuban system."
9. Media and Aguila supporters outside courthouse
10. Set-up shot of Cuban dissident Elizardo Sanchez talking to media
11. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation:
"It is a judicial monstrosity. The same definition that the government itself offers: they are charges against an individual who has not committed any specific crimes. They talk about pre-criminal social endangerment. We hope that in a not too distant future that charge will disappear from the penal code."
12. Wide of Aguila supporters and media outside courthouse
13. Unidentified diplomats from Canada, US, and the Netherlands outside courthouse
14. Aguila supporters, among them Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez (woman standing between man wearing blue t-shirt and woman wearing yellow shirt) cheering and shouting Aguila's name
15. Aguila being led out of courthouse by police and into police car
16. Police car driving away
STORYLINE:
A Cuban court convicted a punk rocker known for his raunchy lyrics against Fidel Castro of public disorder on Friday, but freed him after dismissing a more serious "social dangerousness" charge that could have brought four years behind bars.
Following a two-hour trial, the court ordered Gorki Aguila to pay 600 pesos (28 US dollars) and pledged to release the 39-year-old singer, who had defiantly shouted "Freedom!" as he was being led into the courtroom.
The fine is big money in a country where nearly everyone, Aguila included, works for the state and takes home an average of 408 pesos (19.50 US dollars) per month.
But Aguila faced far more serious punishment had he been convicted of "social dangerousness," which the government defines as violating "communist morality" and uses to detain would-be offenders before they have a chance to commit a crime.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation took the unusual step of attending the trial - which was open to Aguila's father and band mates as well as about 10 of his supporters, but closed to reporters.
Sanchez, whose group is not recognised but largely tolerated by Cuba's communist government, had called the case "a judicial monstrosity" on Friday
Aguila was arrested on Monday as his band, Porno para Ricardo, rehearsed at the modest Havana apartment he shares with his father.
The case sparked international outcry but caused little stir on the island, where the band has only a small but devoted following.
Aguila was previously arrested in 2005 on drug charges that he says were fabricated because authorities objected to his music.
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