{"id":367760,"date":"2010-02-26T11:19:22","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T16:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"15637 at http:\/\/www.amnesty.org"},"modified":"2010-02-26T11:19:22","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T16:19:22","slug":"cuban-human-rights-activist-in-maximum-security-prison-must-be-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/367760","title":{"rendered":"Cuban human rights activist in maximum security prison must be released"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Friday 26 February 2010<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Amnesty International has adopted its 55th prisoner of conscience in Cuba and urged President Ra\u00fal Castro to release him immediately and unconditionally.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Amnesty International today adopted its 55th prisoner of conscience in Cuba and urged President Ra\u00fal Castro for his immediate and unconditional release.<\/p>\n

Darsi Ferrer, Director of the \u2018Juan Bruno Zayas\u2019 Health and Human Rights Centre in Havana, has been detained for over six months since July 2009 on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods, an offence normally bailed immediately. <\/p>\n

He has not been brought to trial and is being held in a maximum security prison in Havana intended for inmates who have been convicted of violent crimes. <\/p>\n

Although the offence with which Darsi is charged would normally be reviewed by a local magistrate, Darsi’s case is being handled by the General Prosecutor’s Office, fuelling the argument that his case is politically motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accusation against Darsi Ferrer is clearly a pretext. We believe he was detained as a punishment for his work to promote freedom of expression in Cuba,\u201d said Gerardo Ducos, Cuba researcher at Amnesty International. <\/p>\n

“Darsi has been detained many times before in connection with his protest activities. Anyone charged with this crime would normally be awaiting trial on bail, not held in a maximum security prison. This is yet another attempt by the Cuban authorities to hinder the work of human rights activists in Cuba,\u201d said Gerardo Ducos.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International adopted Darsi Ferrer days after the death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo on Monday. Orlando Zapata Tamayo was arrested in March 2003 and was serving a total sentence of 36 years. He was reported to have been on hunger strike for several weeks in protest at prison conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important that Amnesty International has declared Darsi a prisoner of conscience because the authorities have insisted he is a criminal prisoner – and that is not the case.” Darsi’s wife, Yusnaimy, told Amnesty International. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis imprisonment has been very difficult for me. It is really hard to see our son suffer, he was really close to his dad and he relies on him.” <\/p>\n

Darsi Ferrer and Yusnaimy were arrested without a valid warrant in Havana on 9 July 2009, hours before they were due to participate in a demonstration to promote freedom of expression. <\/p>\n

They were interrogated for several hours and Darsi Ferrer was handcuffed and beaten by eight police officers. They were released without charge several hours later.  <\/p>\n

On 21 July 2009, Darsi Ferrer was arrested again and told he was being taken to a police station to answer questions about building materials the police had confiscated during their previous detention. However, he was falsely detained and driven to a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Havana and was charged with receiving illegally obtained goods.<\/p>\n

Darsi Ferrer claims the building materials, two sacks of cement and some iron girders, were given to him by a colleague who had left the country and had not finished refurbishing his own house. The materials had been on the porch of the house in full view from the street months before the authorities came to confiscate them. <\/p>\n

“My husband is in prison because he is a person who fights for his ideals and convictions, not because of two bags of cement,” said Yusnaimy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in the dark, we don’t know how long he will stay in prison and this uncertainty is torturing us. As he has not been tried, we cannot be sure if he will stay in prison one more day or 20 more years.”<\/p>\n

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Death of Cuban prisoner of conscience on hunger strike must herald change<\/a> (News, 24 February 2010)
Cuba: Release Darsi Ferrer: Take action now! <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Darsi Ferrer is detained on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 26 February 2010 Amnesty International has adopted its 55th prisoner of conscience in Cuba and urged President Ra\u00fal Castro to release him immediately and unconditionally. Amnesty International today adopted its 55th prisoner of conscience in Cuba and urged President Ra\u00fal Castro for his immediate and unconditional release. Darsi Ferrer, Director of the \u2018Juan Bruno […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}