From Cuba, an Urgent Appeal to the World***My name is Elsa Morejon Hernandez. I'm a Christian woman who defends human rights in Cuba. My wish is that this letter serves as testimony to the world concerning the injustices and psychological terror presently suffered by those of us who struggle peacefully in our country for the freedom of all Cubans. My husband, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González, president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, is a pro-democracy activist presently incarcerated and accused of committing crimes against Cuban State Security. He has been subjected to the physical and psychological mistreatment suffered by all those who oppose the present Cuban regime such as beatings, threats, humiliation, blackmail, intimidating interrogatories and incarcerations in cells deprived of light, along with insane individuals and common criminals. On several occasions, State Security tried to subject him to psychiatric examinations, pressured him to leave Cuba and has prohibited him from practicing medicine.
For his peaceful struggle in favor of human rights, my husband had to serve a three-year sentence in the maximum security prison "Cuba Si," 768 kilometers away from his family. Thirty-six days following his excarceration on Oct. 31, 2002, he was rearrested Dec. 6 as he was about to assemble with other activists to discuss human rights. He remained 19 days at a Police Precinct (PNR) in Havana, sharing a cell with five delinquents and sleeping on the floor. He was transferred Dec. 24, 2002, to the Combinado del Este Prison where he was confined to a cellblock with 30 common criminals. Since March 29, 2003, he has been imprisoned at Villa Marista, the general headquarters of the political police in Havana, and was summoned to appear Monday, April 7, before the Municipal Tribunal of 10 de Octubre. Authorities are requesting a 25-year sentence, based on article 91 of the Cuban Penal Code, which implies Crimes against State Security.***
Castro moves their cheese - Journalists, economists given 27 years in one day, Castro trials***Opposition political party leader Hector Palacios, among those originally recommended for a life sentence, received 25 years, said his wife, Gisela Delgado. "This is an injustice," Delgado said after leaving the courthouse. "We are as Cuban as members of the Communist Party." The Communist government accuses the dissidents of being on Washington's payroll and collaborating with U.S. diplomats to harm Cuba and its economy. In many trials, undercover government agents who infiltrated opposition ranks revealed their true identities to testify against dissidents.
International condemnation of the sentences was swift. The U.S. State Department said the proceedings amounted to a "kangaroo court." "The Castro government is persecuting journalists for acting like journalists. They're persecuting economists for acting like economists, and peaceful activists for seeking a solution to Cuba's growing political and economic crisis," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. Jose Miguel Vivanco, of Human Rights Watch, criticized the trials as a violation of human rights norms and called on the United Nations Human Rights Commission now meeting in Geneva to condemn Cuba for the sentences, which he characterized as "draconian."***