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US
Demands Cuba Release Dissident
VOA
News. 06 Dec 2003.
The United States is demanding that Cuba
immediately release a dissident who was
arrested last year for trying to organize
an event marking Human Rights Day.
The State Department made the demand Friday
as it noted the anniversary of Dr. Oscar
Elias Biscet's arrest on December 6, 2002.
He and nine other opposition activists were
arrested at the same time.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said
in a statement that Dr. Biscet's real crime
was to teach others about human rights in
a country where the government routinely
ignores such fundamental rights.
The spokesman went on to applaud Dr. Biscet
for having courage in the face of "overwhelming
odds and extreme adversity." Mr. Ereli
noted the doctor recently spent three weeks
in a punishment cell for helping both common
and political prisoners to demand recognition
of their fundamental rights.
Doctor Biscet and some 75 Cuban dissidents
are now serving lengthy prison sentences.
The 75 were rounded up in a massive crackdown
in March, then tried and convicted on charges
of treason and subversion. The United States
has demanded the release of the hundreds
of political prisoners being held in Cuba.
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