CPJ Press Freedom Award winner held for "dangerousness"
Committee to Protect
Journalists. January 18, 2001.
New York, January 18, 2001 --- Independent journalist Jesús Joel Díaz
Hernández was released from a Cuban prison yesterday, after serving two
years of a four-year term for practicing independent journalism. He had been
convicted of the charge of "dangerousness."
Díaz Hernández, the executive director of the independent news
service Cooperativa Avileña de Periodistas Independientes (CAPI), was
released without explanation into the care of his parents, and given a document
stating that the rest of his sentence had been suspended. He was a recipient of
the 1999 International Press Freedom Award, presented by the Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In a letter sent to Fidel Castro today, CPJ executive director Ann Cooper
welcomed the news that Díaz Hernández had finally been released,
but expressed concern that he could be jailed again if he returns to work as an
independent journalist. [Read the letter] Cooper also called on Castro to
release two other imprisoned Cuban journalists immediately.
CPJ Protest Letter
January 18, 2000
His Excellency Fidel Castro Ruz President of Cuba c/o Cuban
Mission to the United Nations New York, NY
VIA FAX: 212-779-1697
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes yesterday's release of
independent journalist Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, who was
imprisoned for two years because of his work, in clear violation of
international law. We urge Your Excellency to release the two other journalists
who remain behind bars, Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Manuel Antonio
González Castellanos.
Yesterday, prison authorities summoned Díaz Hernández's
parents to Canaleta prison in Ciego de Avila Province. Without explanation, they
released Díaz Hernández into their care. Díaz Hernández
had served exactly two years of his four-year sentence; a document presented to
him on his release states that the rest of his sentence has been suspended.
While we are relieved that our colleague Díaz Hernández has
been released from prison, we remain outraged that he was jailed in the first
place. The fact that he was convicted under Article 72 of the Cuban penal codes
means that can be jailed again if he returns to work as an independent
journalist. Article 72 states, "Any person shall be deemed dangerous if he
or she has shown a proclivity to commit crimes demonstrated by conduct that is
in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality."
Díaz Hernández, who is the executive director of the
independent news service Cooperativa Avileña de Periodistas
Independientes (CAPI), was subjected to a sham trial and convicted of "dangerousness,"
a crime that is unknown outside Cuba. He was held in degrading conditions and
denied even the limited rights to which he was entitled under Cuban law.
On January 18, 1999, Revolutionary National Police officers arrested Díaz
Hernández at his home in the town of Morón, in the central
province of Ciego de Ávila. The Morón Municipal Court convicted
him of "dangerousness" after a one-day trial. In protest, he
immediately began a hunger strike, refusing even to drink water.
After a summary session on January 22, 1999, the Provincial Court in Ciego
de Ávila confirmed Díaz Hernández's sentence. In a clear
violation of due process, his own attorney was not permitted to attend the
hearing (he was represented by a state-appointed lawyer). Díaz Hernández
ended his hunger strike on January 28 and began drinking liquids.
In July 1999, Díaz Hernández started another hunger strike,
this one lasting 17 days. In September, after spending eight months in solitary
confinement, the journalist was transferred to a section of the prison where
other inmates convicted of "dangerousness" were also held.
CPJ's local sources reported that on November 11, 1999, just before the
Ninth Ibero-American Summit held in Havana, Díaz Hernández went on
a third hunger strike in support of a general amnesty for political prisoners in
Cuba. He was again placed in solitary confinement, even though his sentence
called for correctional work in a labor camp.
On November 23, 1999, CPJ honored Díaz Hernández with an
International Press Freedom Award. Guests at the awards ceremony in New York
City signed 312 postcards urging Your Excellency to release the journalist
immediately. The postcards were delivered via FedEx to the Cuba Interests
Section in Washington D.C. on February 4, 2000.
In July 2000, Díaz Hernández's colleagues reported that the
journalist was suffering from hepatitis and was not receiving proper medical
treatment. The journalist's condition was diagnosed only after his family
smuggled a urine sample out of the prison. The same month, prison guards
confiscated Díaz Hernández's books, and forbade his relatives from
bringing him any more.
We are pleased that after two years in prison, Díaz Hernández
is now free, and is enjoying time with his friends and family. We are hopeful
that he will now be able to practice his profession without government
interference, although we have no illusions about the measures your government
will take to suppress independent journalism.
In fact, we remain deeply concerned about two our colleagues who remain in
prison:
Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón has been in jail since 1997.
The founder of the Línea Sur Press news agency in the province of
Cienfuegos, Arévalo Padrón continues to be held despite being
eligible for parole. His health has suffered as a result of his prolonged
imprisonment.
On October 31, 1997, the Provincial Chamber of the Court of Aguada de
Pasajeros, a town in Cienfuegos, sentenced Arévalo Padrón to six
years' imprisonment for showing "lack of respect" for President Fidel
Castro and for Cuban State Council member Carlos Lage. The charges stemmed from
a series of interviews Arévalo Padrón gave in late 1997 to
Miami-based radio stations. In the interviews, the journalist alleged that,
while Cuban farmers went hungry, helicopters were being used to transport fresh
meat from the countryside to the dinner tables of Castro, Lage, and other
Communist Party officials in Havana.
On November 18, 1997, State Security officers detained Arévalo Padrón
and sent him to jail. The journalist served the early part of his sentence in
the maximum-security Ariza Prison in Cienfuegos, where he shared a filthy cell
with common criminals. On April 11, 1998, State Security officers beat up Arévalo
Padrón after accusing him of writing anti-government posters in prison.
He was subsequently placed in solitary confinement. Later, another prisoner was
identified as having written the posters.
While at Ariza, Arévalo Padrón faced constant harassment,
according to local colleagues. Fellow inmates who managed to make contact with
him were transferred or subjected to reprisals. In addition, Arévalo Padrón
suffered bouts of bronchitis and was reportedly treated twice for high blood
pressure in the prison infirmary. On January 8, the journalist was transferred
to Labor Camp No. 20, in the municipality of Abreu, Cienfuegos, where he served
four months.
Since April 6, 2000, the journalist has been held in the overcrowded and
unsanitary San Marcos labor camp, in the municipality of Lajas, Cienfuegos,
where he works chopping weeds with a machete in sugar cane fields. He is being
fed an extremely poor diet of rice and watered-down broth. According to the
independent news agency CubaPress, prison authorities keep a constant watch on
Arévalo Padrón, censor his incoming and outgoing mail, and
threaten to send him to a maximum-security prison if he does not meet his
production quota.
Because of his strenuous work at several labor camps, Arévalo Padrón
has developed lower back pain (sacrolumbagia) and coronary blockage. After
ignoring Arévalo Padrón's pain for weeks, in September of this
year prison authorities allowed him to undergo a medical examination, CubaPress
reported. A doctor determined that Arévalo Padrón's poor health
disqualifies him from physical work, and that he should permanently wear an
orthopedic brace.
In mid-October, prison authorities informed Arévalo Padrón
that his parole had been approved. Yet Arévalo Padrón continues to
be held in the San Marcos labor camp, a clear violation of Cuban law.
Manuel Antonio González Castellanos, the correspondent for the
independent news agency CubaPress in the eastern province of Holguín, has
been in jail since 1998. He has been denied medical assistance and the legal
benefits to which he is entitled, such as parole.
González Castellanos was arrested on October 1, 1998, for making
critical statements about President Castro to state security agents who had
stopped and insulted him as he was walking home from a visit with a friend.
After awaiting trial in the Holguín Provisional Prison for seven months,
he was convicted by the San Germán Municipal Court, in Holguín
Province, on May 6, 1999. He crime was "disrespect," and he was
sentenced to two years and seven months' imprisonment.
While the charges against González Castellanos did not arise directly
from his journalistic work, local journalists suspect that González
Castellanos was deliberately provoked by State Security agents in retaliation
for his reporting on the activities of political dissidents.
On June 30, 1999, González Castellanos was transferred to Holguín's
maximum-security prison, "Cuba Sí," where guards routinely
harassed him. When he complained about the poor hygienic conditions, the guards
threatened to suspend his visiting rights. In late 1999, local independent
journalists reported that state security officers promised privileges to other
inmates if they would harass González Castellanos and pass on information
about him to the authorities.
On March 3, 2000, González Castellanos was transferred back to Holguín
Provisional Prison. On June 26, he was confined in a punishment cell for 10
days, after being punched in the head by the prison's reeducation officer and a
guard for protesting the confiscation of his handwritten notes. Upon release
from the punishment cell, González Castellanos was placed in a labor
unit. He had a severe cold for two months and lost considerable weight, but was
denied proper medical attention. The journalist's condition improved only after
his family managed to provide him with medication.
In mid-November, 2000, González Castellanos, who is also eligible for
parole, was told that he was one of 60 prisoners being transferred to a labor
camp, where conditions were less harsh. But when the day of the transfer
arrived, González Castellanos was told that he would be staying at the
Holguín Provisional Prison.
As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom
around the world, CPJ believes that your government's criminalization of
independent journalism is a clear violation of Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to freedom
of expression, including the right "to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Jailing those who
exercise this liberty is also a violation of Article 9 of the Universal
Declaration, which states, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile."
We call on Your Excellency to ensure that González Castellanos and Arévalo
Padrón are immediately released from prison, and that their unjust
convictions are reversed.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper Executive Director
Join CPJ in protesting this attack on the press.Write
to:
His Excellency Fidel Castro Ruz President of Cuba
c/o Cuban Mission to the United Nations New York, NY VIA FAX:
212-779-1697
Click here to read more about press freedom
conditions in CUBA
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