Jailed dissident 'living corpse' says anti-Castro group
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
MIAMI, USA (AFP): One of 75 dissidents
jailed by Cuba's communist government a year ago is severely ill, according to
a letter written by a relative in Cuba and distributed Monday by a Miami
anti-Castro group. Pro-democracy advocate
Omar Pernet Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years in a prison in Bayamo, eastern
Cuba, under harsh conditions. He was a human rights activist and founded an
organization of independent libraries. "May
6, 2004 is the last time we saw him, and he looked like a living corpse," his
niece Bertha Antunez Pernet wrote in a letter released by the Democratic Cuban
Directorate (DDC). She said he suffers from a
tumor and a relapse of a lung disease. In
April 2003, the summary trials of the 75 dissidents provoked worldwide
condemnation of President Fidel Castro's communist regime.
Cuba has some 330 political prisoners, of whom 88 are recognized by
international human rights groups as prisoners of conscience.
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
