(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC of International PEN is dismayed at prison sentences handed down on 27 April 2004 to journalists Léxter Téllez Castro and Carlos Brizuela Yera, and lawyer Juan Carlos González Leiva. Téllez Castro, director of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña (Avileña Free Press Agency), Brizuela Yera, director of the Cooperativa de Periodistas […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – The WiPC of International PEN is dismayed at prison sentences handed down on 27 April 2004 to journalists Léxter Téllez Castro and Carlos Brizuela Yera, and lawyer Juan Carlos González Leiva.
Téllez Castro, director of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Avileña (Avileña Free Press Agency), Brizuela Yera, director of the Cooperativa de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (Camagüey Cooperative of Independent Journalists), and González Leiva, a lawyer and member of the Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos (Cuban Human Rights Foundation), have been detained since 4 March 2002, when they formed part of a group of human rights activists who staged a peaceful protest at a hospital in support of a reporter, Jesús Alvarez Castillo, who had earlier been assaulted by police.
At the one-day trial, Téllez Castro was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, while Brizuela Yera was handed a three-year sentence. On account of the time the two have already spent in prison, it is believed they will both be conditionally released in the next few days. González Leiva was sentenced to four years in prison but immediately given a conditional release. The three are likely to have been charged with “disorderly and disrespectful behaviour” under Articles 144 and 200-1 of the Cuban Penal Code.
At his trial, Téllez Castro declared that he was a state security operative, but it is unclear whether this is in fact the case.
International PEN welcomes the fact that, after two years in detention, Téllez Castro, Brizuela Yera and González Leiva were at last brought to trial. However, it repudiates the sentences handed down to the three men and calls upon the Cuban government to review its treatment of those who dare to voice opinions contrary to the official line. In that light, PEN reiterates its call for the release of the 35 journalists and librarians sentenced following the March 2003 clampdown on those deemed to be in opposition to the government (see IFEX alerts of 23 and 19 March, 26 and 14 January 2004, 19 and 11 December, 13 November, 31 October, 4 and 3 September, 26, 13 and 8 August 2003, and others).