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Call for release of journalist
after prison doctors say he is "incurable
in prison"
Reporters
Without Borders, 15 Feb., 2006.
Reporters Without Borders called for the
immediate release of José Ubaldo
Izquierdo Hernández, jailed since
the March 2003 crackdown, and whose prison
doctors have said his state of health is
incompatible with imprisonment.
"The condition of José Ubaldo
Izquierdo Hernández requires care
that cannot be provided in jail, the prison
doctors have recognised it themselves",
said the press freedom organisation.
"The journalist's recovery calls for
him to be freed immediately, or failing,
that to be granted a release on licence
for health reasons. We hope that the Cuban
authorities will respond favourably to this
humanitarian request", it added.
Doctors meeting in Havana on 9 February
2006 confirmed that Izquierdo Hernández's
condition in Guanajay prison in Havana province
had seriously deteriorated over the past
nine months, the Cubanet news agency reported.
Gastroenterologist Dr Vazquez found lesions
in the stomach while carrying out an endoscopy
on the journalist. The specialist detected
a stomach inflammation and recent gastro-intestinal
bleeding and recommended a strict diet.
Once informed of the specialist's diagnosis,
Dr Miriela Gómez Rodríguez,
head of medical services at Guanajay prison
told the journalist that he could not be
treated in prison. The doctor prescribed
a treatment to "ease an inflammation
of the gastric mucus". "That's
all we can do", he explained.
Izquierdo Hernández, 40, was arrested
on 18 March 2003 and sentenced to 16 years
in prison. The former head of an independent
library in Güines, Havana province,
where he originates from, was working before
his arrest for the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro
news agency. Two other dissident journalists,
who worked for the same agency, have also
been in jail since 2003 : Héctor
Maseda Gutiérrez and Omar Moisés
Ruiz Hernández, sentenced respectively
to 20 and 18 years in prison. A third member
of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, Oscar Mario
González Pérez, has been held
without trial since 22 July 2005.
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