By Anita Snow. .c The Associated Press

HAVANA, 22 (AP) - An anti-abortion activist who led a 40-day protest last year demanding the release of political prisoners faces up to seven years in prison when he goes on trial Friday.

Oscar Elias Biscet has been charged with insulting patriotic symbols, public disorder and instigating delinquency, said his government-appointed defense attorney, Sergio Hernandez.

Biscet, a medical doctor, was arrested Nov. 3 arrest after he allegedly hung the Cuban flag upside down during a protest as a sign of civil disobedience. It apparently was that act that most enraged Cuban authorities, for whom the national flag and other patriotic symbols are sacred.

Two other government opponents, Fermin Scull Zulueta and Eduardo Diaz Fleitas, go on trial the same day and face sentences of up to 4 1/2 years each, said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. He did not provide specifics about the charges against them.

Earlier this year, Sanchez said that Cuba's civil rights situation worsened during the past six months of 1999, with a slight increase in the number of people submitted to the Cuban justice system for political crimes.

At the time, he said that his commission's ongoing survey showed that 344 people were sanctioned or otherwise processed for political reasons during the last half of the year, up from 324 during the first half.

About 20 percent of those processed during the last half of 1999 could be classified as prisoners of conscience under criteria established by many international human rights groups, Sanchez said.

The Cuban government's position is that it holds no political prisoners, only common criminals.

Biscet was one of four government opponents who consumed only liquid foods last summer during a 40-day fast to press their demands for people they said were held for political reasons. He heads a human rights group that calls itself the Lawton Foundation, named for a Havana neighborhood.

Biscet has said he lost his job at a government hospital when he clashed with authorities over the policy of providing clinical abortions on demand.

AP-NY-02-22-00 2115EST

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

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