Dissident group says Cuba holds 93 political prisoners

Dissident group says Cuba holds 93 political prisoners
Published April 25, 2016 EFE

The dissident Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation said Monday that there are currently 93 political
prisoners on the island, and that 21 of them have been behind bars for
between 13 and 24 years.

The latest release adds 22 names that were not on the list of June 2015,
which it calls "another sign of the degenerating" political and human
rights situation in Cuba.

The commission classifies these political prisoners in four groups, in
one of which appear the names of 51 members of the peaceful opposition
sentenced for their rebellious attitudes and activities.

Another group is made up of 27 political prisoners sentenced in State
Security Courts for using firearms, force or violence, of whom,
according to the dissident commission, seven arrived armed in three
small expeditions from South Florida bent on overthrowing the government.

Also on the list are four opposition members sentenced for "other crimes
against the state," three of them former intelligence officers including
Miguel Alvarez, who when arrested was the chief advisor of
then-parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon.

The list released Monday also includes 11 former prisoners of conscience
out of jail on probation.

The report calls it "very difficult" to draw up an "exhaustive" list of
political prisoners on the island, where according to commission
estimates, the total prison population numbers somewhere between 60,000
and 70,000 inmates.

The commission also criticizes the Cuban government for rejecting the
cooperation of the International Red Cross and of organizations and
experts of the United Nations in the inspection and improvement of its
penitentiary system, made up of some 200 facilities including prisons,
forced labor fields and detention centers. EFE

Source: Dissident group says Cuba holds 93 political prisoners | Fox
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/04/25/dissident-group-says-cuba-holds-3-political-prisoners/