CUBAN AUTHORITIES URGED TO EXPLAIN DETAINED BLOGGER’S DISAPPEARANCE

CUBAN AUTHORITIES URGED TO EXPLAIN DETAINED BLOGGER'S DISAPPEARANCE
PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAY 6 AUGUST 2014.

When detained Cuban writer and blogger Angel Santiesteban-Prats
disappeared from San Miguel del Padrón prison on 21 July, the
authorities said he had escaped but his daughter managed to talk briefly
with him in a police station ten days later. His present whereabouts are
unknown.

After reporting his disappearance from the prison where he had been held
since April 2013, his family is now worried that the authorities will
charge him with escaping. As they do not known his version of events,
they fear that a trumped-up escape charge will be used to give him an
additional jail sentence.

His daughter is the only relative who has seen him since his
disappearance. As a police officer accompanied her during their
ten-minute meeting, Ángel Santiesteban-Prats was unable to talk freely.
Since then, no information about his situation has been provided while
rumours continue to circulate.

"We urge the authorities to provide a clear explanation of
Santiesteban-Prats' current situation," said Camille Soulier, the head
of the Reporters Without Borders Americas desk.

"Each day without news increases the risks for this blogger. We demand
his immediate release and the withdrawal of all charges against him. The
repressive methods being used by the regime recall the worst days of the
'Black Spring' of 2003."

An outspoken critic of regime in his blog, called "Los hijos que nadie
quiso" (The children no one wanted), Santiesteban-Prats was given a
five-year jail sentence after being convicted on trumped-up charges of
"home violation" and "injuries" in a summary trial in December 2012.

He began serving the sentence in April 2013 in San Miguel del Padrón
prison on the outskirts of Havana, where he was subjected to
mistreatment and acts of torture.

His disappearance followed an interview that his son, Eduardo Angel
Santiesteban, gave to Miami-based Televisión Martí on 15 July in which
he said he was forced to testify against his father and that the
prosecution's claim that his father physically attacked his former wife
was a complete fabrication.

Santiesteban-Prats is on the Reporters Without Borders list of
"information heroes ." Cuba is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in the
2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index – the lowest position
of any country in the Americas.

Source: Cuban authorities urged to explain detained blogger's
disappearance - Reporters Without Borders -
http://en.rsf.org/cuba-cuban-authorities-urged-to-explain-06-08-2014,46770.html