Cuba mulls freeing more dissidents, opposition says

Havana, Agency
The opposition Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission sees indications that the island's communist government is preparing another massive release of political prisoners.

Government officials have formally interviewed nine prisoners who are not part of the so-called "Group of 75" - dissidents jailed in the harsh crackdown of March 2003 - and are not on the list of prisoners of conscience recognized by Amnesty International, the commission, known by the initials CCDHRN, said in a statement.

In the interviews, those prisoners were informed that their release from prison and "reeducation camps" is conditional upon their leaving Cuba, according to the CCDHRN, which said that it confirmed the proceedings through the prisoners themselves in six cases and through their relatives in the other three.

The contacted prisoners also completed a questionnaire with their general personal data and the names of a maximum of eight relatives who might want to leave the country with them if they are released from prison.

Three of the contacted prisoners are serving life sentences for terrorist crimes, the CCDHRN said, while the other six are serving sentences of between six and 15 years for terrorist crimes, piracy, contempt of authority and attacking authority or attempting to leave the country illegally.

In recent days, the Catholic Church and the Ladies in White, a group comprising relatives of the Group of 75, also have mentioned the possibility that Havana will broaden the releases of political prisoners beyond the 52 people it agreed to free in early July.

In negotiations with the island's Catholic hierarchy, President Raul Castro had promised to release all 52 of the Group of 75 prisoners who remained behind bars.

Those 52 individuals are also the only people in Cuban jails who Amnesty International regards as prisoners of conscience, while the opposition says that about 100 other inmates are being held for political reasons.

Since July, 36 political prisoners have been released and transported to Spain - whose government has supported the release process - while three others will leave prison in the next few days for Madrid and another has expressed his readiness to leave Cuba.

The 12 other members of the group of 52 "do not accept being exiled," according to the CCDHRN, which said it hoped that they will be released "unconditionally as soon as possible."

The organization is also asking the Cuban government to grant "full freedom" to the nine Group of 75 dissidents who were released from prison over the past few years on medical paroles.

In addition, the CCDHRN is urging the Cuban government to "ratify, publish and honor" the two major U.N. human rights treaties it signed at the beginning of 2008.

"If the Cuban government does not thoroughly reform the prevailing Penal Code, which criminalizes the exercise of all civil and political rights, the risk will continue to exist that the prisons will fill up again with prisoners of conscience," warned the CCDHRN in its statement.