Published March 22, 2011
EFE
Havana – Cuba's Catholic Church announced Tuesday the coming release
and exile to Spain of 11 political prisoners, including Nestor Rodriguez
Lobaina, president and co-founder of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy.
None of the 11 set to be released is part of the "Group of 75"
dissidents rounded up and jailed in March 2003, two of whom remain
behind bars.
Amnesty International recently demanded the freeing of Nestor Rodriguez,
arrested in December 2010, calling him a "prisoner of conscience" who
was locked up for exercising his freedom of expression.
The other prisoners whose release was announced this Tuesday are Juan
Carlos Vazquez, Bodanis Zulueta, Jose Antonio Sardiñas, Antonio Garcia,
Arnaldo Marquez, Eduardo Diaz, Erick Caballero, Alberto Santiago
Dobochet, Jose Manuel de La Rosa and Roberto Lopez.
Only five of the 11, including Nestor Rodriguez, appear on the list of
political prisoners kept by the opposition Cuban Commission for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation.
Most of the crimes of this group are related to terrorist acts, contempt
for authority and illegal attempts to leave the country.
The Archdiocese of Havana said in its note that with the release of
these prisoners, a total of 114 have now accepted the offer to leave
prison on condition that they go to Spain.
The Cuban government promised last year to free all 52 Group of 75
prisoners still in custody at the time, a commitment made as part of its
dialogue with the Catholic Church that was supported by the Spanish
government.
Cuban authorities later extended the liberation process to include
another kind of prisoner, those sentenced for crimes against state
security, many of whom are not acknowledged by the internal opposition
to be active dissidents.
Of the prisoners who accepted the condition of exile to Spain, 40 were
part of the Group of 75.
Those of this group who have waited the longest to be set free were
Group of 75 members who refused exile as a condition for leaving jail,
10 of whom have now been released and remain in Cuba on parole.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/03/22/11-cuban-political-prisoners-freed/
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