CUBA: Two imprisoned journalists
granted medical parole
Committee
to Protect Journalists.
June 24, 2004.
New York, June 24, 2004-Authorities granted
medical parole to imprisoned journalists
Manuel
Vázquez Portal and Carmelo
Díaz Fernández within
the last week. The two men, who suffer from
several health conditions, were among the
29 journalists imprisoned in Cuba since
March 2003.
Vázquez Portal, a writer with the
independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo
Decoro, was brought to his home in the eastern
Havana neighborhood of Alamar around midnight
yesterday. He was serving an 18-year prison
sentence in Boniato Prison, in eastern Santiago
de Cuba province.The journalist has a lung
disease similar to emphysema.
In May 2003, Vázquez Portal wrote
a prison diary describing the harsh conditions
in Boniato Prison. The journalist's wife,
Yolanda Huerga, smuggled the diary out of
prison and gave it to the foreign press.
In recognition of the efforts by Cuban independent
journalists to disseminate news in a climate
of harsh government repression, CPJ honored
Vázquez Portal with one of its International
Press Freedom Awards in November 2003.
Díaz Fernández, a journalist
with the independent news agency Agencia
de Prensa Sindical Independiente de Cuba
(APSIC), was sent home on June 18. He was
serving a 16-year prison sentence and was
receiving medical treatment for his high
blood pressure at the time of his release
from a prison hospital in Havana. Díaz
Fernández told CPJ that he was warned
just before his release that he would be
sent back to prison if he recovered from
his illnesses or did not maintain good behavior.
Under the Cuban penal code, the courts
or the Ministry of the Interior have discretion
to grant parole (licencia extrapenal) for
any period of time "deemed necessary."
"We are happy that Vázquez
Portal and Díaz Fernández
are home with their families, but we are
gravely concerned about the 27 other journalists
who remain in Cuba's prisons," said
CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "We
urge the Cuban government to unconditionally
release all imprisoned Cuban journalists
and to stop harassing those who are free."
Background
Vázquez Portal and Díaz Fernández
were imprisoned in April 2003 in a massive
government crackdown on the independent
media and political opposition. The detention
of political dissidents and journalists-who
were accused of being "counterrevolutionaries"
at the service of the United States-began
in March 2003, during the first week of
the Iraq war.
The journalists' summary trials were held
on April 3 and 4 behind closed doors. Some
journalists were tried under Article 91
of the Penal Code, which imposes lengthy
prison sentences or death for those who
act against "the independence or the
territorial integrity of the State."
Other journalists were prosecuted for violating
Law 88 for the Protection of Cuba's National
Independence and Economy, which mandates
up to 20 years in prison for anyone who
commits acts "aimed at subverting the
internal order of the Nation and destroying
its political, economic, and social system."
On April 7, 2003, courts across the island
announced prison sentences for the journalists
ranging from 14 to 27 years. In June of
2003, the People's Supreme Tribunal, Cuba's
highest court, dismissed the journalists'
appeals for annulment (recursos de casación)
and upheld their convictions.
The imprisoned journalists, who are being
held in maximum-security facilities, have
denounced their unsanitary prison conditions,
inadequate medical care, solitary confinement,
and lack of access to the press and television.
They have also complained of receiving foul-smelling
and rotten food.
© 2004
Committee to Protect Journalists
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