Re González

• Jurisdiction: Cuba
• Docket Number: Case No. 129
• Date: 10 May 1933
• Court: Supreme Court (Cuba)

Cuba, Supreme Court.

Case No. 129

In re González.

Aliens — Position of — Constitutional Guarantees — Furnishing Bond to Prosecute — The Law of Cuba.

The Facts.—The Criminal Court had required González, an alien, to furnish a bond that he, as the complainant, would carry through a prosecution for misappropriation of funds. Such bond was required of aliens, but not of citizens, by Articles 280 and 281 of the Law of Criminal Procedure.1 González appealed to the Supreme Court on the ground that this discrimination

crimination was an unconstitutional violation of the equality of civil rights between aliens and nationals established by Article 10 of the Constitution.1

Held: that the provisions requiring such a bond were not unconstitutional. The Court pointed out that intervening as the complainant in a criminal proceeding was not the same thing as taking part in a civil suit. Such action was more closely connected with the general welfare of the State. Discrimination against the alien was permissible in such matters.2

¹ Article 280: “The individual complainant shall furnish a bond of the type and the amount fixed by the Judge or Court, to answer for the consequences of the trial.”

Article 281: “There are exempt from the provisions of the preceding article: (1) The victim and his heirs or legal representatives; (2) In crimes of murder or homicide, the widow or widower, ascendants or descendants. … The exemption from furnishing bond is not applicable to aliens unless they have the right by virtue of international treaties or by the principle of reciprocity.”

¹ Article 10, section 3, of the Cuban Constitution provided: “Aliens resident in the territory of the Republic shall...