THREE PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE AFTER THEIR RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS ARE CONFISCATED

THREE PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE AFTER THEIR RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS ARE
CONFISCATED
2008-09-23.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas, Minervo Chil Siret, Christian Liberation
Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación- MCL)
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Havana, September 22, 2008.- Political
prisoners Adolfo Fernández Sainz, Pedro Arguelles Morán and Antonio
Ramón Díaz Sánchez have all declared a hunger strike since Friday,
September 19th at Canaletas Prison, located more than 250 miles from
Havana in the province of Ciego de Ávila. Agustin."

Fernández declared himself on hunger strike after a visit from security
personnel in which various religious writings were confiscated from him,
among these "Confessions of Saint

Antonio Díaz, one of the principal leaders of the Christian Liberation
Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación – MCL) and the Varela Project,
sentenced to 20 years in prison, was confined to the prison's health
unit when he learned about his fellow inmate's hunger strike and decided
to join him in an act of solidarity.

Antonio Díaz suffers from immune-related colitis that has been
aggravated by the stress, lack of consistency in his doctor-prescribed
diet, and the fact that he was restricted to a cell of little more than
16 feet wide and 16 feet long with 26 common prisoners. This space
contains nine bunk beds of three levels each.

These prisoners, now on hunger strike due to the aggravation that they
were subjected to, were imprisoned simply for peacefully defending and
promoting human rights and, in Antonio's case, because he was legally
collecting signatures for the Varela Project.

It is scandalous that, along with more than 50 other prisoners from the
Cuba Spring, they have served, as of September 18th, five years and six
months in prison along with highly dangerous common prisoners and in
inhumane conditions.

The health conditions of these prisoners, already in a precarious state,
have worsened because of this hunger strike, which was deliberately
provoked because the authorities know that the prisoners will resort to
it as a means to defend their dignity in the face of humiliation and
mistreatment.

We must all remember that these three prisoners— Adolfo, Pedro and
Antonio—and all other prisoners from the Cuba Spring were unjustly
condemned through false summary proceedings and without the right to due
representation. None of them instigated or participated in acts of
violence, espionage or any other activity other than the peaceful
promotion and exercise of the rights of the Cuban people.

Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
Minervo Chil Siret
Christian Liberation Movement (Movimiento Cristiano Liberación – MCL)
Havana, September 22, 2008

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=17277