The German chapter of Amnesty International is calling for the release of imprisoned Cuban journalist Pablo Pacheco Ávila, according to CubaEncuentro.com.
"He is a prisoner of conscience ... arrested and imprisoned for having articulated a view from the government's," said AI spokesman Daniel Bartlett. "It is a violation of human rights, and that is why we demand the immediate release."
Pacheco, 39, was arrested during the "black spring" of 2003 and sentenced to 20 years' in prison under Law 88 which provides lengthy prison terms for those found guilty of supporting United States policy on Cuba aimed at "disrupting internal order, destabilising the country and destroying the Socialist State and the independence of Cuba," according to AI.
Pacheco entered prison as a young man, but like other political prisoners in the Castro gulag, imprisonment has taken a heavy toll on his body. He suffers from hypertension, gastric ailments and two years ago he had knee surgery.
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