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NEWS
US Demands
Cuba Release Dissident
VOA News
06 Dec 2003, 01:11 UTC
The United States is demanding that Cuba immediately release a dissident
who was arrested last year for trying to organize an event marking Human
Rights Day.
The State Department made the demand Friday as it noted the anniversary
of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet's arrest on December 6, 2002. He and nine
other opposition activists were arrested at the same time.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in a statement that Dr.
Biscet's real crime was to teach others about human rights in a country
where the government routinely ignores such fundamental rights.
The spokesman went on to applaud Dr. Biscet for having courage in the
face of "overwhelming odds and extreme adversity." Mr. Ereli noted the
doctor recently spent three weeks in a punishment cell for helping both
common and political prisoners to demand recognition of their
fundamental rights.
Doctor Biscet and some 75 Cuban dissidents are now serving lengthy
prison sentences. The 75 were rounded up in a massive crackdown in
March, then tried and convicted on charges of treason and subversion.
The United States has demanded the release of the hundreds of political
prisoners being held in Cuba.
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