US deplores sentencing of three Cuban dissidents
Thursday, May 20, 2004
WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): The United States on
Wednesday condemned Cuba's sentencing of three dissidents to three years in
prison, more than one year after they were arrested for studying human rights
in a Havana home. Activists Orlando Zapata,
Raul Arencibia and Virgilio Marante, who were arrested in December 2002, were
charged with "public disorder, disobedience and resisting authority." They
each received the maximum of three years in jail after a one-day trial
Tuesday. "The real, quote-unquote, 'crime'
was to study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a home in Havana
over a year ago. And in the year since that, I would say, innocent gathering,
they've been awaiting trial," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Ten dissidents were sentenced to prison in April after the first political
trials in a year. In April 2003, the summary trials of 75 dissidents provoked
worldwide condemnation of President Fidel Castro's communist regime.
"These actions are yet another indication of the efforts by the Castro regime
to clamp down on anybody who dares exercise their fundamental human rights or
criticize in any way those who are in power," Ereli said.
"They are indicative of how Castro has isolated himself and has gained the
opprobrium of the international community."
There are some 330 political prisoners in Cuba of whom 88 are recognized by
international human rights groups as prisoners of conscience, according to the
Cuban Committee for National Reconciliation and Human Rights.
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