Biography
Carlos Noya Muratti was a carpenter, Puerto Rican independence activist, and member of the political bureau of the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña. He also represented the Liga in the Comité Unitario Contra la Represión. A federal court jailed him for civil contempt on October 30, 1980, after he refused to answer questions or provide evidence to a grand jury investigating the independence movement. He was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York and released on March 27, 1982, after 17 months. Noya again refused to testify before a Brooklyn grand jury in 1983. After an initial mistrial and a second criminal-contempt trial, he received a two-year sentence on April 9, 1984 and was released in December 1985. He continued organizing for political prisoners and Puerto Rican independence until his death in May 2005.
Sentence date distinguished from prison admission
Carlos Noya began serving the criminal-contempt sentence in June 1984, not on the April 9 sentencing date. June 1 is a month-precision storage placeholder, not a documented admission day. Torres reports a June 25 transfer to Tallahassee, not necessarily initial admission, and actual December 25, 1985 release, citing Jose Che Paralitici, Sentencia impuesta, page 347. Exact initial arrest and admission day remain unresolved; displayed duration is an estimate.
Sources: Breakthrough, Summer 1984, PDF page 39: both began serving sentences in June; Luis Rogelio Torres, 2022 doctoral thesis, printed page 161, footnotes 433-434: interview admission and retrospective actual release dates; Libertad, November 1985, page 2: forecasts only, not independent actual-release confirmation. Complete relevant pages visually checked. No identified Carlos Noya portrait located; namesakes and the Juan Mari Bras column-author portrait excluded.
The Militant reported that a jury found Federico Cintrón Fiallo and Carlos Noya Muratti guilty of refusing to appear before a federal grand jury on October 20, 1983, after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury.
