(RSF/IFEX) – On the second anniversary of his arrest, RSF voiced alarm at the dramatic decline in the health of José Luis García Paneque, 39, director of the independent news agency Libertad. The journalist, who is serving a 24-year prison sentence, has lost 40 kg in the past two years. “García Paneque was unjustly imprisoned […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On the second anniversary of his arrest, RSF voiced alarm at the dramatic decline in the health of José Luis García Paneque, 39, director of the independent news agency Libertad. The journalist, who is serving a 24-year prison sentence, has lost 40 kg in the past two years.
“García Paneque was unjustly imprisoned simply for being an independent journalist. Keeping him in detention any longer could be fatal. We urgently call on the Cuban authorities to release García Paneque and allow him to receive the medical care he needs,” RSF said.
His wife, Yamilé Llanes Labrada, told RSF, “My husband weighed 86 kg when he was arrested. He now weighs less than 40 kg. He has an intestinal condition that is life-threatening. He is weak and emaciated, and has diarrhea that has not been treated for the past 15 months. He needs foods rich in animal protein which he is not getting. He is extremely malnourished and will not survive if he stays in prison.”
García Paneque has been hospitalised twice because of his condition. In July 2004, he was taken from Santa Clara prison, in central Cuba, where he began serving his sentence, to the Vladimir Lenin hospital in the eastern city of Holguín. In November, he was admitted to the infirmary of Havana’s Combinado del Este prison, where he is still being held.
“The diagnosis has been confirmed but my husband is still not getting the food and care he needs,” said Llanes Labrada, who previously contacted RSF about her husband’s condition on 14 January 2005. “The authorities know his condition is incompatible with detention but they neither say nor do anything.” She said she was also worried about the psychological impact on their four children, who have been “traumatized by the fact that their father is being treated so badly.”
