HAVANA, 3 (AP) - The number of detentions and other kinds of restrictions on government opponents in Cuba grew in February over the previous month, a leading human rights activist said Friday.
``This review confirms that during the past four months there was the largest number of acts of political repression in the last 10 years,'' Elizardo Sanchez, president of the non-governmental Cuban Commission of Human Rights and Reconciliation, said in a statement delivered to foreign
journalists.
``From our point of view, the detentions, restrictions of movement and other acts that have occurred during the previous four months reflect a high level of arbitrariness,'' Sanchez wrote.
Cuba's communist government denies that it violates human rights and says it holds no political prisoners, only common criminals.
Government opponents are generally referred to as counterrevolutionaries and accused of being directed by the U.S. government or anti-Castro Cuban-American groups in Miami.
Sanchez's report comes just days after a political activist arrested for hanging three Cuban flags upside down during a protest was sentenced to three years in prison.
Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was convicted and sentenced on Friday for dishonoring patriotic symbols. The 38-year-old physician could have been sentenced to seven years.
Sanchez noted that it would be impossible for a tribunal in Cuba not to convict Biscet after Cuban President Fidel Castro publicly attacked him during a television speech just days before Biscet's arrest in November.
Nevertheless, Sanchez said the government's decision to allow foreign diplomats and foreign journalists into Biscet's one-day trial was a positive move.
AP-NY-03-03-00 2144EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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