Canadian lawmaker says businessman unfairly held in Cuba

Canadian lawmaker says businessman unfairly held in Cuba

By JUAN O. TAMAYO

The Miami Herald

Published: Wednesday, Apr. 30, 2014 - 1:00 am



A senior Canadian parliament member has taken a punch at Cuba's new

foreign investment law, saying that one of his constituents has been

jailed on the island since 2011 without trial and has been offered

leniency if he pays questionable debts.



"The international financial community should ponder long and hard the

investment blandishments of Cuban ministers, diplomats and trade

officials," said Peter Kent, chairman of the House of Commons Defense

Committee.



"Reality is at stark odds with the platitudes" of those officials, Kent

added, going on to detail the case of his constituent, Cy Tokmakjian,

one of several foreign businessmen jailed in Cuba on what they say are

fraudulent corruption charges.



Tokmakjian, 73, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese descent, is president of

Tokmakjian Group, at one point the second-largest Canadian firm

operating in Cuba. He has been jailed since Sept. 10, 2011, for

investigation by Interior Ministry officials.



Kent described the ministry as modeled on the Soviet KGB and East German

Stasi security services. He also noted that all of the other jailed

businessmen come from Canada and Europe - not Cuban allies such as

China, Venezuela or Russia.



Tokmakjian's assets in Cuba, worth more than $90 million, have been

frozen, and "it seems no coincidence" that the total value of the

government's claims against him exceeds that amount, Kent wrote in a

column published Tuesday in the Huffington Post.

"There have been suggestions to company representatives that additional

millions sent from Canada could result in a more 'lenient' outcome," he

added. "He has been told, many times, that, if he drops international

claims against Cuba or admits to minor 'offenses,' he would have a

lenient trial and be released immediately."



Tokmakjian has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him, which

include bribery and tax evasion. Kent said the businessman is ready to

defend his case vigorously in a Cuban court.



Kent said that when he visited Cuba in 2010 as minister of state for

foreign affairs in charge of the Americas, Tokmakjian "was characterized

as a valued partner by Cuban interlocutors." The Canadian company

largely sold imported vehicles to the island's government.



The parliament member also noted that among the foreign investors who

lost millions in Cuba when they came under suspicion of corruption were

Briton Stephen Purvis, who was working to develop a golf course, and

Frenchman Jean Louis Autret, who ran a string of bakeries and other

businesses.



Another Canadian businessman, Sarkis Yacoubian, was expelled from Cuba

in February after serving about one-third of a nine-year sentence. He

was arrested in July 2011 and was convicted in April 2013 of bribery,

tax evasion and "activities damaging to the economy."



Yacoubian, who ran a $30 million trading company in Cuba, Tri-Star

Caribbean, told the Toronto Star newspaper that he had cooperated with

investigators and hoped to receive a lenient sentence. Cuban officials

never explained his expulsion.



He and Tokmakjian were imprisoned at La Condesa, a facility on the

outskirts of Havana reserved for foreigners and important Cuban

government officials



Source: Canadian lawmaker says businessman unfairly held in Cuba - Wire

Lifestyle - The Sacramento Bee -

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/30/6368184/canadian-lawmaker-says-businessman.html