José Luis García Paneque
Sentence: 24 years
Status: Villa Clara , Santa Clara Provincial Prison
José Luis García Paneque is a plastic surgeon and a director of Libertad agency (Las Tunas),
sentenced in Las Tunas province. Prosecutors had asked for 18 years but the court raised the
sentence to 24 without explanation. In July 2000, Paneque wrote an article titled “Doctors or slaves?”,
which was highly critical of the official practice of imposing internal exile on any physician who asked
to leave the country legally. Married, Paneque has four children.
Oscar Elias Biscet
Sentence: 25 years
Status: Ciudad de la Habana
Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was one of the last to be tried. Dr. Biscet is a medical doctor by profession and
had been jailed since the December 2002 protest.
Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello
Sentence: 20 years
Status: Ciudad de la Habana
Marta Beatriz Roque - the only woman detained - is an economist and the director of
the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists. Roque, age 58, had previously served nearly
three years in prison. Along with three other dissidents, she was prosecuted after publishing
an analytical paper titled "The Homeland Belongs to All," which discussed Cuba's human rights
situation and called for reforms. She is a recipient of the 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of
Scientists Award of the New York Academy of Sciences. In April of this year, she was sentenced
for her opposition activity to 20 years in prison.
Jorge Olivera Castillo
Sentence: 18 years
Status: Guantánamo , Chafarina
Jorge Olivera Castillo was the head of Havana Press agency (Havana) and later its interim director
and a former reporter for New Cuban Press. In a 1997 crackdown on independent journalists he was
denounced by Cuban authorities for ''consorting with the foreign media.'' Neighborhood vigilante groups
ordered him to leave his Havana home and he was forced to sleep on park benches for a while.
In November 1999, he was denounced by name by Fidel Castro as one of the dissidents who allegedly
planned to disrupt the Ibero-American Summit in Havana. Married, he has a 10-year-old daughter
Omar Rodríguez Saludes
Sentence: 27 years
Status: Camagüey, Kilo 8
Omar Rodriguez Saludes received the second longest sentence of 27 years.
He is an independent journalist and the head of Nueva Prensa agency (Havana).
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez
Sentence: 26 years
Status: Matanzas, Agüica
Miguel Galván is a journalist for Havana Press agency (Güines).
Victor Rolando Arroyo
Sentence: 26 years
Status: Chafirina, Guantanamo
Victor Rolando Arroyo is a journalist for the UPECI agency (Pinar del Río).
Normando Hernández González
Sentence: 25 years
Status: Santiago de Cuba, Boniato
Normando Hernández is the head of Independent College of Journalists agency (Camagüey).
Manuel Vázquez Portal
Sentence: 18 years
Status: Santiago de Cuba , Boniato
Manuel Vazquez Portal is a journalist with Grupo de Trabajo Decoro agency (Havana).
Plus thousands more...