Cuba frees political prisoner

Cuba frees political prisoner

Cuba has released Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez, its longest-serving
political prisoner who spent more than 13 years in prison, a human
rights group said.

Chaviano, who was arrested in 1994, was convicted of revealing state
secrets and sentenced to 15 years in jail, the Cuban Commission for
Human Rights and National Reconciliation said.

Amnesty International listed the former mathematics professor and human
rights activist as one of Cuba's 72 prisoners of conscience.

Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, the commission's spokesman, said that more
than 200 dissidents remained in "sub-human and degrading conditions" in
Cuban jails.

Disappeared

Chaviano was president of the Cuban National Council for Civil Rights
when he was arrested in May 1994.

He was sentenced in secret by a military court in 1995 for revealing
state secrets while documenting the cases of people who disappeared or
died trying to leave Cuba on rafts.

Chaviano denied revealing state secrets and his supporters said no
defence was presented during the trial.

The number of political prisoners in Cuba dropped from 283 to 246 in the
first half of the year, the commission reported.

But the report also said the human rights situation had not improved
since Fidel Castro, the ailing Cuban leader, handed over power to Raul
Castro, his brother, more than a year ago.

The Cuban government denies there are political prisoners in Cuba and
says dissidents are on the payroll of the United States.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/813F61F2-E167-499A-B69D-B30532AA74F4.htm