Cuban law puts onus on driver to prove he’s not at fault
A 19-year-old Canadian man has been stuck in Cuba for four months and is facing up to three years in a Cuban prison after getting into a car accident that he says wasn’t his fault. Cody LeCompte of Simcoe, Ont. was visiting the communist country with his mother Dannette in April when the pair’s rented Hyundai was “broadsided” by a truck at an intersection. After the accident, police detained LeCompte in his hotel room because Cuban law requires drivers to prove in court that they are not at fault for an accident causing injury. His single mother is in Cuba alongside him, waiting for a court date to be set. She says she’s spent $30,000 on lawyers and other costs related to the four month extended stay. A Foreign Affairs Canada spokesperson told the Toronto Sun that it will not interfere in the judicial process of a foreign country. LeCompte will have to wait for a trial.