Cubans Jailed For Taking Baseball Players To US: Media

HAVANA, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th May, 2017 ) - A court jailed three Cubans for trafficking baseball players from the communist island to the United States to the play in the major league, state media said Thursday.

The court in the central town of Sancti Spiritus handed them sentences of between eight and 10 years on human trafficking charges and the People's Supreme Court ratified the ruling, the provincial newspaper Escambray said.

The three men ran "a network for stealing Cuban baseball players who, due to their performances in national and international competitions, had prospects of joining Major League teams," it said.

The network had been trafficking players from Cuba since 2015 with the help of a contact in the Dominican Republic, it added. A court in Miami convicted a Cuban-American baseball agent and a Dominican coach on similar charges two months ago.

Thursday's report did not say whether the two cases were linked. The Cuban government has been seeking an accord with Major League Baseball to regularize transfers of Cuban players.