PRESS RELEASE
April 6, 2003
FROM CUBA, AN URGENT APPEAL TO THE WORLD
Havana, Cuba. April 4, 2003
My name is Elsa Morejon Hernandez. I´m a Christian woman who defends human
rights in Cuba. My wish is that this letter serves as testimony to the world
concerning the injustices and psychological terror presently suffered by those
of us who struggle peacefully in our country for the freedom of all Cubans.
My husband, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González, president of the Lawton Foundation
for Human Rights, is a pro-democracy activist presently incarcerated and accused
of committing crimes against Cuban State Security. He has been subjected to the
physical and psychological mistreatment suffered by all those who oppose the
present Cuban regime such as beatings, threats, humiliations, blackmails,
intimidating interrogatories and incarcerations in cells deprived of light,
along with insane individuals and common criminals. On several occasions, State
Security tried to subject him to psychiatric examinations, pressures him to
leave Cuba and has prohibited him from practicing medicine.
For his peaceful struggle in favor of human rights, my husband had to serve a
three-year sentence in the maximum security prison "Cuba Si", 768 kilometers
away from his family. Thirty six days following his excarceration on October 31,
2002, he was rearrested December 6 as he was about to assemble with other
activists to discuss human rights. He remained 19 days at a Police Precinct (PNR)
in Havana sharing a cell with 5 delinquents and sleeping on the floor. He was
transferred December 24, 2002 to the Combinado del Este Prison where he was
confined to a cell block with 30 common criminals. Since March 29, 2003 he is
imprisoned at Villa Marista, the general headquarters of the political police in
Havana and is summoned to appear this coming Monday, April 7 before the
Municipal Tribunal of 10 de Octubre. Authorities request a 25 year sentence,
based on article 91 of the Cuban Penal Code which implies Crimes against State
Security.
Authorities are implicating my husband, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, in a wave of
arrests which began this past March 18 in the island, involving almost one
hundred independent journalists and civil activists. For their peaceful dissent,
these Cubans are accused of subverting the Cuban socialist system, crime for
which many are expected to serve life sentences and may even be executed.
These charges are inappropriate allegations against my husband, a man who
promotes and carries out peaceful, public and open activities in defense of all
human rights, particularly the right to life. His ideals are the only
instruments he uses to implement his desire that civil and political rights are
respected in Cuba.
Dr. Biscet has been prohibited from associating with independent organizations
since in Cuba all NGOs answer to the interests of the present communist regime.
We have never submitted ourselves to the interests of a foreign state but have
appealed to the solidarity of foreign countries through their embassies in
Havana expressing our aspirations to live in freedom in our own country.
Convinced of my husband's innocence and of all activists presently incarcerated,
I urgently ask dignitaries of democratic nations, human rights organizations,
religious, civic and political leaders, the international press and all men and
women of good will in the world to demand before the Cuban regime the
unconditional and immediate freedom of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and all those
prisoners whose only crime is to honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in their own country.
Elsa Morejon Hernandez
Acosta 464 entre 8va y 9na, Lawton, Municipio 10 de Octubre, La Habana, Cuba.
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Testimony provided via telephone from Cuba and translated to English.
Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA CARRO
Email: Joseito76@aol.com