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Cuba: Releases of prisoners
of conscience should continue
Amnesty
International,
25 June 2004.
Amnesty International (AI) welcomes the
release of two further prisoners of conscience
by the Cuban authorities, but calls for
more to be released. Manuel Vázquez
Portal and Juan Roberto de Miranda Hernández
were granted medical parole, both having
received treatment for serious medical conditions
while in custody.
AI has received numerous reports of illnesses
among prisoners having been aggravated by
prison conditions, insufficient access to
appropriate medical care and, at times,
hunger strikes.
The recent releases brings the total number
of prisoners of conscience released in the
past two months to ten; four of them --
Leonardo Bruzon Avila, Emilio Leyva Perez,
Carlos Alberto Dominguez Gonzalez and Lázaro
Miguel Rodriguez Capote -- had been held
for over two years without trial.
AI recognises a further 78 prisoners of
conscience in Cuba and calls on the authorities
to immediately and unconditionally release
them all.
"In addition, we call on the authorities
to comply with the principles laid out in
international human rights standards for
the treatment of prisoners," the organization
said.
Background:
In the space of a few days beginning on
18 March 2003, the Cuban authorities arrested
scores of dissidents in targeted sweeps.
Some were subsequently released, but 75
of them, including Manuel Vázquez
Portal and Juan Roberto de Miranda Hernández,
were subjected to hasty and manifestly unfair
trials in early April and quickly sentenced
to long prison terms of up to 28 years.
Most appealed their sentences, but the appeals
were rejected.
Amnesty
International / CUBA
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