07-05-2010.
Benoit Hervieu
Americas Desk, Reporters sans frontières
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- In the latest ongoing wave of repression,
it seems the Cuban authorities are bringing more serious charges against
Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, the Hablemos Press reporter, who was
arrested with force on 23 April while covering an activity commemorating
imprisoned dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death.
Initially charged with "insulting behaviour," Martínez is still being
held and is now apparently accused of "aggravated violence" against a
police officer at the time of his arrest although the authorities have
offered no details about what allegedly took place. The vagueness
indicates that the authorities themselves are not sure what they are
claiming.
During his transfer to Valle Grande prison in La Lisa, on the outskirts
of Havana, on 30 April, Martínez insisted that the charges were
baseless. "This is an invention designed to stop my work and neither the
police nor the prosecutor's office can agree on the lies they are going
to use to convict me," he said.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Martínez,
who has been arrested many times in the past and deported three times to
the eastern city of Camagüey, each time in connection with his
journalistic work.
The government's treatment of independent journalists has been worsening
of late in a new crackdown on anyone trying to express dissident views
under a regime marked by a complete absence of civil liberties.
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=27608
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