Cuba to free 5 political prisoners
2010-10-22 11:45
Havana - Cuba will set free and send to Spain another five political prisoners who are not part of the 52 dissidents the government agreed in July to release as President Raul Castro continued emptying the communist-led island's jails of opposition members.
The Catholic Church said on Thursday the five would leave Cuba soon, which will raise to 47 the total number of prisoners freed since the July accord brokered by the Church was announced.
The announcement came on the same day that the European Parliament awarded Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas its annual Sakhavrov Prize for Freedom of Thought for his long hunger strike this year, which helped pressure Cuba to release political prisoners.
Cuba's government has made no comment about the award.
Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights said the latest to be freed - four men and a woman - included several on its list of about 100 jailed dissidents, many of whom were convicted of crimes such as terrorism and piracy.
Castro wants all activists freed
The authorities earlier released three prisoners also not among the original 52 agreed to by the government, bringing their total to eight.
Of the original 52, all of whom were jailed in a 2003 crackdown on opposition, 39 have been released and sent to Spain.
The remaining 13 are said to be insisting that they stay in Cuba. The Church and Cuban officials have said they will be freed.
Cuban leaders have also said Castro wants to release all of the country's political prisoners and offers have been made even to former political prisoners now out on parole to leave Cuba.
"Clearly, the process of releases continues in which the principal winner is the Cuban government because it gets rid of a number of people jailed for crimes against the state, which attracted and continues to attract much international criticism," Sanchez said.
"It doesn't represent a significant improvement in Cuba's human rights situation."
Cuba does not consider the jailed dissidents to be political prisoners but views them as mercenaries working for the US.
