Cuba frees two British businessmen from jail after secret 'corruption' trial

Cuba frees two British businessmen from jail after secret 'corruption' trial

Two British businessmen who spent two years in jail on corruption

charges in Cuba have been released after a secret trial.

By Colin Freeman6:00PM BST 21 Jun 2013Comment



Stephen Purvis and his Lebanese-born colleague Amado Fakhre were held

after their company, Coral Capital Group, fell foul of a massive

anti-graft drive launched by President Raul Castro. Until then, their

investment firm had been playing a leading role in developing the

Caribbean island's tourist economy by financing luxury hotels and golf

courses.

During their time in custody they were questioned at the Villa Marista,

a notorious counter-intelligence headquarters, and then taken to a wing

specially set aside for foreigners at La Condesa prison in Havana.

The British embassy, which has been providing both men with consular

help, said that Mr Purvis was released on Monday and Mr Fakhre on

Wednesday. Their trial took place behind closed doors last month.

No details of the charges against them have been released, although it

is understood that half a dozen Cubans were also involved in the case.

The detention of the two Britons has alarmed other foreign

businesspeople working in Cuba, which is relying on foreign know-how to

help its moribund communist economy adapt to market reforms.

An architect by training, 52-year-old Mr Purvis lived with his family in

Cuba and was a well-known figure on the island, serving as the board

member of an international school in Havana and as the producer of a

local dance show. As Coral's chief operating officer, he was also the

public face of the firm's plans to build an ambitious 1,200 home golf

resort on prime beachland on the edge of the capital at Bellomonte.

The project, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, symbolised the

U-turn that Cuba has made as it tries to modernise economically. Shortly

after Raul's brother Fidel took power in 1959, he famously shut all the

golf courses, claiming it was a "bourgeois" hobby that had no place in a

communist revolutionary state.

Coral also spent $28 million modernising the Saratoga hotel, a landmark

in Havana's historic city centre, and was also involved a raft of other

businesses in Cuba, including ports, bottle manufacturing, film

production and a Land Rover concession.

In an interview in 2011, Mr Purvis had said he felt confident doing

business in Cuba, claiming to be well aware of the pitfalls that might

put off other investors.

"We have invested time here; we've moved our families here," he said.

"We understand the culture. Cubans want to do business with people they

know."

However, all foreign investors in Cuba are required to have local

partners by law, and in the last two years, dozens of senior Cuban

managers, incuding vice-ministers and close associates of the Castro

brothers, have been arrested on suspicion of taking kickbacks.

While few details of the Coral case have been made public, it is

understood that they may have focused on the firm's sidelines in trade

finance and import ventures rather than its real estate portfolio.

Mr Purvis was arrested in March last year, as he was about to take his

children to school, while Mr Fakhre, who was Coral's executive director,

was held in October 2011, following a raid by Cuban police on Coral's

offices in Havana, which were then closed.

According to one report on the Reuters news agency, the two men were

both found guilty of minor charges and released for time served. Mr

Purvis was apparently told that he was free to leave the country, while

Mr Fakhre's status was unclear. Neither could be reached for comment,

nor was anyone available at Coral's office in London.



Source: "Cuba frees two British businessmen from jail after secret

'corruption' trial - Telegraph" -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/10135219/Cuba-frees-two-British-businessmen-from-jail-after-secret-corruption-trial.html