Thursday July 17, 2003
Man sits in Cuban prison
Windsor father arrested in Puerto Padre on sex crime charges
Craig Pearson Star Staff Reporter, Windsor Star

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday it is investigating a report that a Windsor autoworker has been sentenced to 10 years in a Cuban jail for "corrupting a minor" -- a charge the accused's son says was trumped up.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said the Canadian consul in Havana received an unofficial call last Tuesday from a friend of Zlatko Trpkovski -- a 53-year-old worker at the Nemak Essex Aluminum Plant
-- who has sat in a Las Tunas jail since being arrested Feb. 6.

The caller said the Windsor man was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years. Foreign Affairs has so far been unable to confirm the verdict or sentence, though they could confirm Trpkovski had a trial in front of a judge June 30.

"It's entrapment," said the accused's son, Alex Trpkovski, who installs garage doors in Windsor. "He's just a regular tourist. He wasn't doing anything wrong."

Alex, 25, said his unmarried father went on a boat ride in Cuba with a girl whom he only found out later was underage and likely a prostitute -- after police arrested him.

Alex says he has since learned the girl was "14 or 15," but said his father was told she was 19.

"She had led him to believe she was a lot older than she was," said Alex. "He couldn't have known."

Alex said he doesn't know what happened between his father and the girl.

Meanwhile, Alex said his father will lose his job of 26 years at Nemak if he does not return to work by Aug. 22.

Alex travelled to Cuba three weeks ago to meet with his father. It took him four days to acquire the proper permit to visit the jail.

He said his father has lost about 10 pounds and is bothered by mosquitoes but that he speaks Spanish and is maintaining good spirits, despite harsh living conditions.

"He said the food offered in jail he wouldn't serve to a dog or a pig," said Alex, who has paid a Cuban friend of his father's to bring food to the prison two or three times a week.

Alex said that when he travelled around the nearby town of Puerto Padre, where his father often stayed on his regular trips to Cuba -- two or three times a year for the last decade -- several people knew who he was. He was told that certain young prostitutes tip off authorities.

"I heard from many people that these girls, professional prostitutes, often work with police in setting these poor guys up, hoping to make some extra money," Trpkovski said. "There's a lot of corruption in the police force there."

Alex said he finds it suspicious that his father took a short boat trip to an island with the girl and that police were waiting on shore to arrest him.

"They didn't even tell him why," Alex said. "They just handcuffed him and took him away."

Alex said he is feeling frustrated by what he sees as a lack of assistance.

"I haven't seen my dad but once in six months," he said. "I'm not getting much help from my government or my lawyer."

Foreign Affairs is following the case but can do little to help.

"We're aware of his case and he's been visited by the Canadian consul in Havana," said Doiron. "And he's receiving calls and he's receiving mail.

"We're following it very closely."

That said, Doiron admitted that no Canadian official has visited Trpkovski since hearing word that he had been sentenced to 10 years.

"We don't have to go," Doiron said. "It's not compulsory."

Almost 3,000 Canadians face legal problems in 117 countries abroad, including 13 in Cuba. But Doiron warns travellers that Canada has no legal jurisdiction in other countries.

"If something has been committed of a criminal nature it's local laws that will prevail," Doiron said. "Our job is to ensure that: one, the Canadian who is being investigated will have unfettered and unrestricted access to legal counsel and two, that due process of justice will take place, with no discrimination against him based on his citizenship."

Though Canada has bilateral agreements with a number of countries on repatriating prisoners, it has no such arrangement with Cuba.

© Copyright 2003 Windsor Star

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bootsfahrt mit cubanern?