Leonardo Miguel Bruzon Ávila, this week's Political Prisoner of the Week, has been released from custody, according to a report from independent journalist Belinda Salas Tapanes. Unfortunately, the report, as Salas concedes, does not clear the circumstances of his arrest.
It was originally reported that Bruzón, a human rights activist and former political prisoner, was arrested July 3, as part of a widespread government crackdown on dissident activity tied, in part, to the U.S. Independence Day. But Salas reports that police arrested Bruzón on July 9 and took him to a psychiatric hospital in Havana where he was housed with semi-nude with drug addicts and people with mental disorders. (The photographic evidence is disturbing.)
The next evening, July 10, Salas reports Bruzón was handcuffed and driven to a Havana police station. From there, he was released about 10 p.m., according to the report.
Salas wrote that Bruzón told her that he had been verbally and physically assaulted by guards at the hospital.
(Salas, who also is president of Cuba's most prominent dissident feminist organization, is normally a reliable source of information. But I suspect she reported an incorrect date for Bruzón's arrest, and that he actually was in custody for a week. I have not been able to find any other reports about Bruzón's release.)
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