UPDATED, Oct 28, 2009 - Vladimir Alejo was released from prison on Oct. 23.
There is no justice in Cuba.
Consider the case of Vladimir Alejo Miranda.
It is bad enough that Aljeo, a 45-year-old independent librarian and human rights activist, was arrested Dec. 2, 2007, for carrying through a public park a sign demanding the release of Cuban political prisoners.
Adding to the travesty is that in the year since, he has remained in prison but has not been given his day in court — such as the courts are in Cuba — on charges of "contempt of authority and offending the figure of the commander-in-chief."
Alejo's arrest was part of a government crackdown in the days and weeks leading up to last year's International Human Rights Day — a crackdown that was repeated before this year's commemoration last week.
That Alejo has not been released, like most of the others who were detained, is not surprising, considering how active he has been in opposition to the dictatorship and how familiar the dictatorship was with his activities.
For example, on Jan. 14, 2006, police raided his library and seized some 300 "subversive books. And just weeks before his arrest, several members of the Miguel Valdes Tamayo Pro-Human Rights Popular Movement, of which Alejo is the chairman, marched through Havana handing out CAMBIO bracelets and copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Cuba is a signatory of the Declaration, among whose provisions state: "Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him." (Article 10)
Until Alejo gets his "independent and impartial tribunal," only the Castro dictatorship is guilty of any crime in this case.
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