Cubans on Finnish court
The Appeals Court in the Finnish south-western city of Turku reduced the five-year sentences handed down to four of them. The longest of the revised prison terms is that of Osmany Uriarte Mestre – four years. Luis Sosa Sierra was acquitted. Ricardo Calvo-Manzano will now serve three and a half years, the team captain Rolando Cepeda Abreu two and a half years and Alfonso Gavilan one year and three months. They were detained in the southern Finnish city on 2 July after a woman said she had been raped by them at a hotel. The players denied the accusation. Eight men were initially detained. Two were released soon afterward.
In September, the Tampere court learned that two of the players had met the woman in a nightclub in the hotel basement. She later went to the room of Uriarte Mestre and consented to sex. However, Uriarte Mestre was then said to have texted his teammates without the woman’s knowledge. They entered the room and subjected her to a lengthy ordeal and held her by the hair to prevent her leaving. When she was eventually allowed to leave, she complained to the hotel receptionist who called the police.
The Cuban players were found guilty of aggravated rape and ordered to pay €24,000 (£21,076; $27,383) in compensation to the victim. As the allegations emerged, two of the team coaches were sacked.
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