A man is arrested during a demonstration against the government of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana on July 11, 2021. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) --
Cuban prosecutors announced Friday that two dissident artists who had participated in anti-government protests had been convicted and sentenced to prison, according to a statement posted on the website of state-run newspaper Granma.
Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty on charges that include desecrating the Cuban flag in his works of art.
Otero Alcántara was arrested on July 11, 2021, when anti-government protests were spreading throughout the island.
The second artist, Maikel Castillo Pérez, known as Osorbo, was sentenced to nine years in prison, after being found guilty of charges that included contempt and public disorder after an altercation with the police that he tried to stop.
Almost 400 people in Cuba are sentenced for last year's protests
The sentences of three other people convicted in the same trials were also announced by the Cuban Prosecutor's Office in a note published on the Granma website.
Otero Alcántara and Osorbo are members of the San Isidro Movement, a small group of artists and musicians protesting government censorship on the communist-leaning island.
Both Otero Alcántara and Osorbo appeared in the music video for Patria y Vida, an anti-government anthem that harshly criticizes the Cuban authorities.
Osorbo also won two Latin Grammys for rapping parts of the song.
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The Cuban government accused the men of receiving funds from the US government to sow dissent on the island.
According to Amnesty International, both are listed as prisoners of conscience.
Cuba