|
|
NEWS
Cuba
21 November 2006
Independent
journalist aged 62 is freed after being held without trial for 16 months
Reporters Without Borders today hailed yesterday’s release of journalist
Oscar Mario González Pérez of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro independent
news agency, who had been held since July 2005. Twenty-three other
independent journalists are still detained in Cuba.
“The reasons for González’s release are not known, any more than the
real reasons for his arrest and detention without trial for 16 months,”
the press freedom organisation said. “His case is unfortunately typical
of the absurd repressive methods used in Cuba. By freeing him, the
authorities implicitly recognised that have no serious grounds for
holding dissident journalists. We hope this is the prelude to the
release of the 23 other detained journalists.”
González, 62, was freed from “1580" prison in San Miguel del Padrón
(Havana province), where he had been since the start of this year after
being held for months in a total of six different state security
lockups. The prison authorities had told his family they had no
knowledge of any charges against him. He had been placed in the prison’s
FD section, FD standing for “falta de documentación” - no documentation.
González, who helped found the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro agency in 1997,
was arrested along with 33 other dissidents on 22 July 2005, on the eve
of a demonstration that was to have been held outside the French embassy
in Havana in protest against the “normalisation” of relations between
the European Union and Cuba.
They were all released except a lawyer, a human rights activist and
González. These three initially appeared to be facing trial for
threatening “Cuba’s territorial independence and economy” under Law 88,
for which they could have received 20-year jail terms. But they were
never formally charged. The state security police variously told
González’s wife, Mirtha Wong, that the indictment “does not exist” or
“cannot be found.”
In July, the judicial authorities told his lawyer, Amelia Rodríguez,
that he would be tried on a charge of “disturbing the peace,” which
could have resulted in a one-year prison sentence. As a result of poor
prison conditions, González began suffering from cervical osteoarthritis
and high blood pressure while held. Neither of these ailments was
properly treated.
Three other Grupo de Trabajo Decoro journalists - Hector Maseda
Gutiérrez, Omar Moíses Ruiz Hernández and José Ubaldo Izquierdo
Hernández - have been imprisoned since March 2003.
News Archive
| Home
|
 |
|
