Mining workers escape prison

COAL miners from Leon, where pits are threatened with closure, will not go to prison for protests in 2010. 

The ten miners faced 18-month prison terms for public disorder and attacks on authority after they cut off traffic on the AP-66 motorway and the CL-626 main road on three occasions in September 2010.

None of the men has a criminal record and after plea-bargaining by their lawyers, the sentences were suspended for two years for seven of them. Three others facing shorter sentences agreed to accept fines.

The compromise was the best solution although the accusations were false, said Lisardo Riesgo, one of the miners, before entering the courtroom. It was the word of the police against theirs, he claimed, but as always “the righteous pay for the sinners.”