(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is outraged over the appalling prison conditions which most of the 26 recently-detained, independent journalists have had to endure since they were rounded up with other dissidents in March 2003 and handed long jail terms. The information about their prison conditions, published on the http://cubanet.org and http://nuevaprensa.org websites, was confirmed by the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is outraged over the appalling prison conditions which most of the 26 recently-detained, independent journalists have had to endure since they were rounded up with other dissidents in March 2003 and handed long jail terms.
The information about their prison conditions, published on the http://cubanet.org and http://nuevaprensa.org websites, was confirmed by the wives of several of the jailed journalists.
According to these sources, Normando Hernández, of the CPIC news agency, and Alfredo Pulido López, of the El Mayor agency, are in solitary confinement. Journalist and poet Raúl Rivero is being held in a three square-metre cell without any light, while the cell of independent journalist Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez has a light bulb that is always on. Gálvez, Mario Enrique Mayo, of the Félix Varela agency, and Adolfo Fernández Sainz, of the Patria agency, share their cells with inmates jailed for common crimes.
Hygiene is very poor in many of journalists’ cells, especially those of Omar Rodríguez Saludes, of the Nueva Prensa agency, and Ricardo González, editor of the magazine “De Cuba” and an RSF correspondent, whose cells are infested with rats. González is awaiting transfer to a wing where he will be housed with inmates held for common crimes. Independent journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe is in poor health. His chronic hepatitis, liver failure and high blood pressure are getting worse because of the lack of proper treatment.
Most of the detained journalists are allowed family visits only once every three months. A few are allowed one visit every three weeks. The authorities have even threatened some of the journalists’ wives with the suspension of the visits altogether. Rivero’s wife, Blanca Reyes, said these restrictions were part of a strategy to isolate the detainees. This is also reflected in the fact that many of them have been placed in provincial prisons, sometimes more than 900 kilometres from the capital, Havana.
The 26 independent journalists were part of a group of nearly 80 dissidents who were rounded up on 18 March. Accused of working with the United States interests section (the U.S. diplomatic representation in Havana) to “endanger the state’s independence or territorial integrity”, they have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from six to 27 years.
