Cuban sportsmen guilty of gang rape in Finland

The Pirkanmaa district court in Tampere on Tuesday found five members of Cuba's national volleyball team guilty of gang rape during a Volleyball World League in July.

Team captain Rolando Cepeda Abreu (age 27) and three other teammates received five-year prison sentences for aggravated rape, while another teammate was handed three years and six months. A sixth teammate was found not guilty.

The Finnish court found that the woman met players of Cuba's national volleyball in the basement club of the hotel they were staying at on July 2.

She accompanied one of the players to his room, where they had consensual sex, the court said. But the sportsman later invited several of his teammates into the room without her consent.

Four of those convicted "had together and in mutual understanding forced (the victim) to several acts of sexual intercourse by means of violence and by taking advantage of (her) fear and state of helplessness," according to the prosecutor.

Clear evidence

The charge sheet said the men held her by the neck and pulled her hair to prevent her from leaving the room, despite her screaming for them to stop. The player who received the three-year sentence was found guilty of raping the woman in a separate room, and not alongside his teammates.

The court made its ruling based on the victim's account and evidence, including photographs and videos taken during the incident and text messages between the players.

The convicts all pleaded not guilty, saying either they did not have sex with the woman or that it was consensual. They were also ordered to pay the victim 24,000 euros ($26,800) in damages, alongside their prison sentences.

The Cuban national team decided to play in the Olympic Games in Brazil without their teammates detained in Finland. The team placed last in their group with five consecutive defeats.

ls/jil (Reuters, AFP)