Prisoners of conscience Amnesty International

[posei...@sympatico.ca]

 

From: A. Jawien <skept...@my-deja.com>
Subject: Amnesty International - Prisoners of conscience: New convictions overshadow releases
Date: Saturday, March 24, 2001 5:20 PM

CUBA

Prisoners of conscience: New convictions overshadow releases

http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/AMR250212000?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\C
UBA


I. INTRODUCTION

Currently several hundred people, 21 of whom have been identified by Amnesty
International as prisoners of conscience detained for peaceful exercise of
the freedom of expression, association or assembly, are imprisoned for
political offences in Cuba.(1) In addition to these prisoners of conscience,
Amnesty International continues to be concerned at the severe harassment to
which dissidents, including journalists, members of political organizations
and human rights advocates, are subjected. (For the most recent public
information on specific incidents of harassment, see Amnesty International's
report ''Cuba: short term detention and harassment of dissidents'' (AMR
25/04/00), of March 2000. This practice is ongoing, and Amnesty
International continues to monitor it closely although such information is
not included in the scope of the present report.)

Repression of dissent has a long history in Cuba. The Cuban Government has
traditionally argued that it is justified in depriving dissidents of
fundamental freedoms of expression, association and assembly in order to
maintain the unity of the country against hostile forces abroad.(2) In
response to this argument, Amnesty International has maintained that all
states, irrespective of any external threat, the political character of the
government concerned or any other situation-specific factors, are under
obligation to fulfil the duties laid out in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, including the duty to respect fundamental freedoms. Therefore,
Amnesty International protests against the human rights violations covered
by its mandate in all countries where they occur.

In Cuba, repression of dissent is legitimised by the Constitution and the
Penal Code. Some offences against state security, such as ''propaganda
enemiga'', ''enemy propaganda'', as well as offences against authority, such
as ''desacato'', ''disrespect'', have been widely applied to silence
critics. Others, like ''peligrosidad'', ''dangerousness'', are ill-defined
and open to politically-motivated misuse. At times dissidents have been
convicted of criminal offences, believed to have been fabricated in order to
discredit them or their organization or in retaliation for peaceful
expression of their beliefs.

Detained dissidents are at times held for long periods without trial, or are
convicted after procedures that do not meet international standards for fair
trial due to issues involving the independence and impartiality of the
judiciary and the access of the accused to defence counsel.

II. PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE RELEASED CONDITIONALLY OR AFTER EXPIRY OF THEIR
SENTENCE

Nine prisoners of conscience have been released since the beginning of 2000.
Amnesty International notes these releases and renews its call for the Cuban
government to unconditionally release all remaining prisoners of conscience
and to stop detaining citizens for the peaceful exercise of fundamental
freedoms.

One of the releases came after the person concerned had completed his prison
term. Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a journalist, was sentenced to six
months' imprisonment in January 2000 for collecting toys which he planned to
give away to children. His home was reportedly searched by State Security
officers who confiscated toys paid for with money raised by Cuban exile
groups in Miami as part of a Christmas appeal called Proyecto Reyes Magos
del Milenio, the Millennium Three Wise Men Project. Víctor Rolando Arroyo
was subsequently convicted and sentenced for ''acaparamiento'', ''hoarding''
(Article 230 of the Cuban Penal Code).

Amnesty International believes that his conviction was motivated by his work
for the independent press agency Unión de Periodistas y Escritores Cubanos
Independientes, Union of Cuban Independent Journalists and Writers, and his
links with Miami exile groups opposed to the government. Víctor Rolando
Arroyo had been previously jailed for one year and nine months in 1996, for
''desacato'', ''disrespect'', reportedly after an incident involving a
policeman. His arrest in January took place during a period of clampdown on
dissidents, in the aftermath of the Ibero-American Summit in Havana.

Víctor Rolando Arroyo was released in July after serving the full six months
of his sentence.

Several other releases came before completion of the individuals' prison
sentences, and were termed 'conditional releases' by the authorities.(3) In
May prisoners of conscience Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne Carcasés and
René Gómez Manzano, three members of the so-called "Group of Four", were
released. The four members of the Grupo de Trabajo de la Disidencia Interna
para el Análisis de la Situación Socio-Económica Cubana (The Internal
Dissidents Working Group for the Analysis of the Cuban Socio-Economic
Situation) who had been held in custody since July 1997, were sentenced amid
much national and international protest to between three and a half and five
years' imprisonment on a charge of ''otros actos contra la seguridad del
estado'', ''other acts against state security'' (Article 125(c) of the Cuban
Penal Code) in relation to a charge of ''sedición'', ''sedition'' (Article
100 (c) of the Cuban Penal Code).

The fourth member of the group, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, remains in prison.
On the eve of the third anniversary of his detention in July the three
former prisoners of conscience held a press conference at which they called
for his immediate release.

Orestes Rodríguez Horruitiner was placed on conditional release on 7 April
2000. He had been sentenced to four years' imprisonment in 1997 for
''propaganda enemiga'', ''enemy propaganda'' (Article 103 of the Cuban Penal
Code), reportedly after authorities confiscated some publications from his
home.

Several other prisoners of conscience were released after long periods
without ever having been tried. Such detention without trial contravenes the
international prohibition on arbitrary deprivation of liberty laid out in
article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 25 of the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, among other
instruments.(4)

Maritza Lugo Fernández, vice-president of the illegal Partido Democrático 30
de Noviembre ''Frank País'', Frank País 30 November Democratic Party, was
arrested on 23 December 1999. She planned to participate in a religious
procession to celebrate Christmas but was detained along with six others,
all of whom were released within a few days.

Maritza Lugo, who was detained on eleven different occasions in 1999, went
on two hunger strikes to protest her arrest and continued detention without
official charge. She was eventually charged with ''desórdenes públicos'',
''public disorder'' (Articles 200-201 of the Cuban Penal Code), but was not
tried; she was released on 1 June, over five months after her arrest.
According to some sources, the charge against her still stands. Amnesty
International has received reports that Maritza Lugo has been briefly
re-detained and interrogated since this most recent release, and continues
to monitor her situation closely.

Angel Moya Acosta and the brothers Guido and Ariel Sigler Amaya, all members
of the illegal Movimiento Opción Alternativa, Alternative Option Movement,
were detained on 15 December 1999 after they participated in a peaceful
demonstration in Pedro Betancourt village, Matanzas province, on 10 December
to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Although they were charged with ''resistencia'', ''resistance''
(Article 143 of the Cuban Penal Code), ''desórdenes públicos'', ''public
disorder'' (Articles 200-201 of the Cuban Penal Code), and ''instigación a
delinquir'', ''instigation to commit a crime'', (Article 202 of the Cuban
Penal Code) no trial or sentencing ever took place. According to statements
made by Angel Moya Acosta since his release, the peaceful demonstration was
broken up by members of the Brigadas de Respuesta Rapida under the
instruction of members of the Buró Municipal del Partido Comunista.

Guido Sigler Amaya was transferred from prison to house arrest on 10 June,
and was freed on 9 July. Ariel Sigler Amaya was freed on 5 August and Angel
Moya Acosta, on 7 August. In an interview after his release, Angel Moya
Acosta reportedly said ''no queremos violencia, no practicamos la violencia,
no queremos anarquía, pero sí somos partidarios de la desobediencia civil
como método pacífico para obligar al gobierno a reconocer nuestros derechos
y libertades fundamentales'' (''we neither want nor practice violence, we
don't want anarchy; but we do believe in civil disobedience as a pacific
method to make the government recognize our fundamental rights and
freedoms.'')(5)

III. POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ARRESTS CONTINUE; NEW CASES OF PRISONERS OF
CONSCIENCE

In July Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina, president of the unofficial Cuban Youth
Movement for Democracy [for tr: Movimiento de Jóvenes Cubanos por la
Democracia], was convicted in court of ''desacato'',''disrespect'' (Article
144 of the Cuban Penal Code), ''desórdenes públicos'', ''public disorder''
(Articles 200-201 of the Cuban Penal Code) and ''daños'', ''damages''
(Article 339 of the Cuban Penal Code). Eddy Alfredo Mena y González, another
member of the movement, also stood trial with him on the same charges. The
prosecution had called for sentences of 4 years 3 months for Nestor
Rodríguez and 10 years for Eddy Alfredo Mena; Nestor Rodríguez was sentenced
to six years and two months, while Eddy Alfredo Mena was sentenced to five
years and one month. Amnesty International believes that the two have been
imprisoned due to the non-violent exercise of the rights to freedom of
expression and association, and calls for their unconditional release as
prisoners of conscience.

Due to his opposition to the Cuban government, Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina has
been arrested and imprisoned on a number of occasions. In 1996 he was
arrested following peaceful attempts to organize a movement for university
reform. After a summary trial in which he did not have access to defence
counsel, he was sentenced to 12 months' restricted liberty, as well as to
five years' ''banishment'' to his home town, on charges of ''resisting
authority'' and ''disrespect''. In 1997, he was again arrested and sentenced
to 18 months' imprisonment, on the same charges as before, after criticizing
the Fourteenth Youth and Student Festival scheduled for later that year in
Cuba. He was detained again in December 1998, July 1999 and was last
arrested in connection to the current case against him on 2 March 2000.

There were new developments in the case of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González,
president of the Fundación Lawton de Derechos Humanos, Lawton Foundation for
Human Rights, a humanitarian organization considered illegal by the Cuban
authorities, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on 25 February 2000.
He was initially arrested on 3 November 1999 and charged with ''ultraje a
los símbolos de la patria'', ''insult to the symbols of the homeland''
(article 203 of the Cuban Penal Code), which carries a maximum sentence of
one year's imprisonment. The charge was reportedly brought against him
because he hung a Cuban flag sideways on his balcony during a press
conference at his home on 28 October 1999. (See ''Eleven remain in detention
following government crackdown on dissent during the Ibero-American Summit
in Havana,'' AMR 25/02/00, of 31 January 2000). The prosecutor's petition
against him, issued in February 2000, included two further charges:
''desórdenes públicos'', ''public disorder'', (Articles 200-201 of the Cuban
Penal Code)and ''instigación a delinquir'', ''instigation to commit a
crime'' (Article 202 of the Cuban Penal Code). Dr Biscet, who denied all
these charges, said that he hung the flag in that manner as a means of
non-violent protest. He was found guilty on all three counts.

IV. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT

Amnesty International urges the Cuban Government:

. To release immediately and unconditionally all those detained or
imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of
expression, association and assembly;

. To bring Cuban legislation into line with international human rights
standards, particularly those regarding the exercise of the above-mentioned
fundamental freedoms, so that the human rights of all Cubans are protected;

. To grant full judicial guarantees for a fair trial, in accordance with
international human rights standards, including immediate access to a lawyer
of their choice, to all those who remain in detention and are accused of
politically-motivated offences;

. To cease immediately all forms of intimidation and harassment directed
towards dissidents who are seeking solely to exercise their fundamental
human rights as established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

****

(1) Amnesty International is aware that there may well be additional such
prisoners of conscience in Cuba, and is in the process of verifying
information with regard to several ongoing cases not mentioned in the
present report.
(2) The United States of America's embargo against Cuba has been repeatedly
condemned by the United Nations General Assembly. While Amnesty
International's mandate does not permit it to take a position on this or any
other type of sanction, the organization recognizes that the embargo has
increased hardship within Cuba and added to the economic difficulties faced
by the country, while at the same time its very existence continues to be
used by the authorities as justification for continued repression of
dissent. The most recent example of this is the February 1999 adoption of
Law 88, the Law for the Protection of the National Independence and Economy
of Cuba [for tr: "Ley de Protección de la Independencia Nacional y la
Economía de Cuba"]. This law allows for penalties of up to 20 years'
imprisonment for activities viewed as supporting the embargo. These
activities, as laid out in the law, include providing information to the US
government; owning, distributing or reproducing material produced by the US
government or any other foreign entity; and collaborating, by any means,
with foreign radio, television, press or other foreign media, with the
purpose of destabilizing the country and destroying the socialist state.
(3) 'Libertad condicional' is provided for under article 58 of the Cuban
Penal Code. According to the Code, early release can be obtained after a
third of the sentence when the inmate is under 20; after one half of the
sentence for older first-time offenders; after two-thirds of the sentence
for older recidivists; or in extraordinary circumstances.
(4) The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has
established criteria for determining when detention is arbitrary. These
criteria include when there is no legal grounds for detention; when the
deprivation of freedom relates to the exercise of certain freedoms or rights
protected by international law; or when the right to fair trial has not been
respected.
(5) Reported via CubaNet posting, 9 August 2000.

http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/AMR250212000?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\C
UBA