Family of Vaughan businessman jailed in Cuba speaks out

(Updated)

A 74-year-old Ontario businessman has been sentenced to 15 years jail in Cuba after what is being described as a sham trial on ridiculous charges. Cy Tokmakjian was arrested in 2011 after more than 20 years of running a successful business in Cuba. It took years for the country to lay charges — but only months to find him guilty.

The charges are for bribery, tax evasions, and economic crimes against the state. But the company says they’re all absurd. They have experts to prove it but those experts weren’t allowed in court. So today the family held a news conference in the hopes that would help convince Cuba to send Tokmakjian home.

“I haven’t seen my father for three years but I speak to him.”

Raffi Tokmakjian says his father, Cy, is in a military hospital right now, after three years in a crowded jail: “He says, I’ve done nothing, you know that. Everybody knows that. You cannot stop fighting for what’s right.”

Cy Tokmakjian is from Armenia originally but he started his first Ontario business in 1971, SM Diesel. He became a leader in diesel engine repairs. About a decade later, he expanded, adding divisions, including Can-ar Coach Lines. It’s similar to the services he provided in Cuba; getting buses and cars to the tourist industry.

His son Raffi used to advise other Canadians on doing business in Cuba: “Three days before my father was taken in, I was there and I said the experience we’ve had is that as long as you stay in compliance with the laws, they shouldn’t do anything to you. Three days later, he gets taken in.”

They say everything the company did in Cuba was normal business practice, and they had witnesses to prove it, but the witnesses weren’t allowed to testify. Cuba has seized about 100 million of the company’s assets.

Lee Hacker, Tokmakjian V.P: “It would appear that the intentions of Cuba are to take the assets of Tokmakjian, which has been generated over 20 years of doing business of Cuba.”

MP Peter Kent knows Tokmakjian as a constituent and met him in Cuba a couple of times. He visited the jail last year: “Not very nice conditions for a 74-year old man among criminals, rapists and so forth.”

He tweeted a picture of Tokmakjian being awarded by Fidel Castro for his business partnerships. He says everything changed when Fidel’s brother Raul took over the country.

MP Peter Kent: “Cy’s conviction is a warning to international business men that the rules of the game have changed, and this could happen to anyone.”

And it has happened to more than just Tokmakjian. We’ve heard that there have been other business people from Canada as well as British, French and Mexican businessmen.

Sarkis Yacoubian of Canada’s Tri-Star Caribbean was the most recent Canadian convicted and jailed in Cuba. But recently, he was sent back to Canada after all his assets were seized. The Canadian government is working to get a similar outcome in this case.

Additional video: News Now coverage of the family news conference.