The Czech Republic-based People In Need Foundation has released a new report detailing arrests and other human rights abuses of the political opposition in Cuba during the first five months of this year, compelete with names and dates.
The bottom line:
Over the last five months, the Cuban regime arrested and jailed 22 dissidents and opposition activists, 13 of whom were still in prison at the time of this report. The closed door trials were problematic on several levels. They were held in judicial chambers without public access, tended to be so quick that they lacked basic procedural guarantees necessary for fair judgment, and had military and State Security personnel present in the room at all times. Most of these court cases were the result of dissidents being accused and found guilty of social dangerousness, insulting the Cuban state, or conspiracy charges around the attempt to commit some type of attack.
During this same time period, 4 out of the ‘75’ prisoners of conscience from the 2003 crackdown were released from prison into forced exile in Spain. There were rumors of 3 more of the ‘75’ being released at the same time, but in the end they were not set free and their names were not made public. Almost 50 political prisoners in total are very ill, and at least 10 are considered to be in critical condition. As of now, the Cuban regime has refused to grant any of them a conditional probation.
More information on several of the political prisoners mentioned in the report, like Juan Bermúdez Toranzo and Deisy Talavera López is available by clicking on their names in the right-hand column of this site.
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