The penalty is served outside prison under court supervision. Those serving it must appear when summoned; they cannot change residence without permission and face limits on travel outside their province. Judge Zamira Marrero Morgado sentenced the women to two years of house arrest, according to the United Kingdom-based rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). However, the penalty the court announced does not necessarily confine the pair to their home, The Latin Times reported.
Benítez said the judge read the sentence aloud and that details will come in the written ruling. Her attorney, Roberto Ortega, said the defense plans to appeal within the limited time allowed once the ruling is issued. On Tuesday, four of Cuba’s largest registered Protestant denominations issued separate statements supporting the women: the Assemblies of God, the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, the Evangelical League of Cuba and the Methodist Church of Cuba.
Baptist Convention of Western Cuba said both women are full members and that their conviction “will be the drop that causes the cup to overflow.” The convention said the women "possess a powerful testimony of Christian life." "They are not delinquents, attackers, drug dealers, terrorists or mercenaries. … Due to a basic sense of justice we cannot, do not want to and will not leave them on their own," the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba said in a statement shared by CSW.
"On an island that is falling apart, characterized by hunger, illness, unhealthiness, scarcity of water, electricity and medicine, apathy and a lack of protection from the police, the imprisonment of these two innocent and righteous women will be the drop that causes the cup to overflow." The case began March 10, when an agent of Cuba’s Department of State Security came to the family’s home in Alamar, a Havana neighborhood, in civilian