Ex-Spanish Prime Minister Demands Release Cuban Prisoners
September 18, 2004 UTC

By: Stefan J. Bos,
Chief International Correspondent, BosNewsLife

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel concerned about dissidents in Cuba.
Source: AP/BBC

HAVANA/PRAGUE (BosNewsLife)-- Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has appealed for the release of dozens of dissidents in Cuba, including Christians, who he said are political prisoners held "simply because they have a different opinion from the official line," BosNewsLife monitored Saturday September 18.

He made the comments at an international conference in Prague on promoting democracy in Cuba, which was opened by ex-Czech President, Vaclav Havel, a former dissident and long time campaigner for the release of political prisoners on the Communist island.

The meeting began shortly after BosNewsLife received appeals from Cuban prisoners to the international community not to ease pressure on the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, despite reports that some dissidents have now been released.

"The release of some well-known dissidents who were gravely ill does not constitute acts of freedom or a spirit of change. These people have been sent home after having been terrorized, tortured, and weakened in governmental jails," said blind Christian lawyer Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, who has been held under house arrest, after being released on "health grounds."

In an open letter to the European Parliament, he stressed he was sentenced "to four years of deprivation of freedom for organizing and celebrating the 2nd Congress of The Cuban Foundation of Human Rights," an institution over which he still presides. "I send you a warm greeting in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and in whose name I also express to you the purpose of this letter, which is none other than devotion to my country, Cuba," he wrote.

He and other dissident sources say that prison quards have tortured political prisoners in recent months. "For the period of 17 months after his summary trial on April 7, 2003, my husband has been confined 8 months in punishment cells suffering inhumane prison conditions," wrote Elsa Morejon Hernandez, the wife of one of Cuba's most prominent political prisoners, in a letter obtained by BosNewsLife.

WITHOUT FAMILY

She said she had received a note from her husband, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, showing that "he's been cut off from his family, forbidden from receiving any visits, telephone calls, food or any literature."

The ailing dissident has "been deprived of sunlight; his correspondence is intercepted and he is denied his personal belongings. He sleeps on a cement slab and only at 10:00 p.m. (and) he is given a small mattress," Hernandez added.

From February 2003, through September 7, 2004, he has only been permitted 4 family visits and 3 deliveries of food provisions, she explained.

"He has never been allowed to make or receive any phone calls. During the 5 months he was confined with dangerous criminals, he felt harassed and pressured to comply with a discipline incongruent with his personality and his principles (and) he refuses to cohabit a cell with such individuals."

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights and pro-life activist who she said "opposes the death sentence, and desires to live in a democracy in his own country."

Copyright © 2004 by BosNewsLife