(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 8 June 2004 release of independent journalist Carlos Alberto Dominguez González after 27 months in prison. The journalist was released because of his poor health. “Carlos Alberto Dominguez González should never have been imprisoned or detained in these appalling conditions. We hold the authorities in Havana responsible for the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has welcomed the 8 June 2004 release of independent journalist Carlos Alberto Dominguez González after 27 months in prison. The journalist was released because of his poor health.
“Carlos Alberto Dominguez González should never have been imprisoned or detained in these appalling conditions. We hold the authorities in Havana responsible for the journalist’s state of health,” said RSF. The organisation strongly condemned the methods of Fidel Castro’s government and called for the immediate release of 28 jailed Cuban journalists.
On 23 February 2002, four state security agents arrested Dominguez González at his Havana home, on the eve of a commemorative mass organised by the opposition as a tribute to four pilots working for a relief organisation whose planes were shot down by the Cuban Air Force in 1996. He had previously been arrested several times because of his political activism and his articles. He was also banned from leaving the country, despite the fact that he, his wife and three children had visas to enter the United States since June 2000. He was charged with “insult” and “public disorder”.
After two days of interrogation in Villa Marista, the State Security headquarters in Havana, and 10 days in detention at Havana’s Technical Investigations Department (Departamento Técnico de Investigaciones, DTI), Dominguez González was transferred to the Carlos J. Finlay de Marianao military hospital, in the capital, on 8 March 2002. He was suffering from high blood pressure, migraines and gastritis. All his visits were postponed “because of his state of health”.
On 29 March 2002, he was imprisoned without trial at the Valle Grande maximum security prison, 60 kilometres from the capital. Three months after his arrest, he renounced his right to a lawyer since he was never allowed to see him, and because his lawyer could not get access to his file. On 13 October 2002, he was transferred to Havana’s Combinado del Este prison after joining a hunger strike by political prisoners to protest brutality against three of them.
Dominguez González, aged 51, is a journalist with the Cuba Verdad news agency. He also heads the Instituto del Derecho and is a member of the 30 November Democratic Party, both of which are illegal organisations.
Cuba is the world’s largest prison for journalists, ahead of China (27 jailed journalists) and Eritrea (14 jailed journalists). President Castro is included on RSF’s list of 37 international “press freedom predators”.
