"I am extremely happy to regain my freedom, but I also feel sad for leaving my country," said Alfredo Pulido López, who was sentenced to 14 years in jail in 2003.
(CPJ/IFEX) – New York, July 22, 2010 – Cuban journalist Alfredo Pulido López was released from jail and landed today in Madrid, bringing to 10 the number of imprisoned reporters freed and sent to Spain as part of an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government.
“I am extremely happy to regain my freedom, but I also feel sad for leaving my country,” Pulido López told CPJ in a telephone interview. “I am committed to work on behalf of a transition to a more open society in Cuba. After seven years in prison, I sadly find that my country is still deprived of many fundamental rights.”
Pulido López, who was sentenced in March 2003 to 14 years in prison, arrived with his family around 2 p.m. local time, the journalist said. On arrival, he was driven to a hotel in Mostoles, south of Madrid, according to Cuban journalist Alejandro González Raga.
A director for the independent news agency El Mayor in the province of Camagüey, Pulido López was arrested on charges of acting against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state. Those charges, included in Article 91 of the Cuban penal code, are still in force.
“While we are relieved by the release of journalist Alfredo Pulido López, we are concerned that the provisions used to jail him and the other journalists are still in place,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s Americas program senior coordinator. “We urge Cuban authorities to dismantle the restrictive legal framework utilized to punish independent reporting and freedom of expression.”
The church announced this month that the Cuban government had agreed to free a total of 52 dissidents arrested in the March 2003 government crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism known as the Black Spring. Ten journalists arrested during the 2003 crackdown remain in prison, as does one other who was jailed later, according to CPJ research.
