Carromero on trial today (Updated)

Spanish Partido Popular activist Angel Carromero is on trial today in Bayamo for charges related to the July 22 deaths of dissidents Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.  Carromero was driving the car in which they and a Swedish political activist were traveling from Havana to Santiago that day; the accident killed Paya and Cepero and lightly injured Carromero and the Swede.

The courtroom is closed to media and reporters are following the trial on closed-circuit television.  The pro-government blog La Bayamesa says that Carromero told the court he “feels profound pain” regarding the accident.    

The whole chain of my earlier posts on this are here.

More here from Reuters, ABC (Madrid), and a pro-government blog in Bayamo.  CubaEncuentro and others are reporting that blogger Yoani Sanchez, who writes for El Pais, was detained this morning in Bayamo where she apparently intended to cover the trial.  Official media are calling her “pro-U.S.” and say her intention was to put on a “media show.” 

Update: AFP reports on some of Carromero’s statements in court and notes that oral arguments are expected to conclude today, after which the court has five days to render a decision.

[Photo of Carromero arriving at trial from La Bayamesa.]