CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

April 16 2003

LEADING CUBAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS

Dr Oscar Elias Biscet, a leading Cuban human rights activist, was sentenced to 25 years prison last Thursday.

Along with over 80 other human rights activists and political dissidents, he last week underwent a summary trial, lasting no more than one day. It was the largest such crackdown by the Cuban government in over a decade.

Dr Biscet, however, was able to send a positive message through his wife, Elsa. “These are very good moments,” he told her, referring to the overall situation in Cuba.

Many analysts and the dissidents inside Cuba believe that the crackdown is a direct result of the Cuban government’s fear of the growth of a grassroots democracy movement on the island.

Dr Biscet, a devout Christian, was released from prison last October 31st, after serving a three-year sentence for hanging the Cuban flag upside down in protest at the lack of freedom in the country. The trials came at the end of a massive crackdown on human rights and pro-democracy activists across the island. The Cuban government arrested upwards of 80 men and women in the last two weeks of March and put them all through summary trials early last week. International observers and foreign journalists were not allowed entry.

In addition, CSW has learnt that last week Cuban authorities raided the home where his wife is staying and confiscated personal photos, a fax machine, and a personal computer among other items. This will severely restrict her ability to communicate with the outside world.

On December 6, 2002 Dr Biscet was rearrested and charged with ‘disorderly conduct’. During his month of freedom he had involved himself in promoting a grassroots project called the ‘Friends of Human Rights’ a forum through which small groups of individuals could meet in homes to learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and ways to defend and demand those rights in a peaceful manner. His arrest took place when Cuban security forces attempted to forcibly prevent Dr Biscet and other human rights activists from entering one of these homes where they planned to discuss the UDHR.

While in prison, his Bible has been confiscated a number of times as a punishment and he has consistently been denied the right to pastoral visits. He has also been denied family visits, access to the prison library, and medical treatment, which led him to lose all of his molars after chronic problems with his gums. He is now in danger of losing all his teeth as treatment continues to be withheld.

CSW asked its supporters to write to their MEPs to urge them to support a resolution condemning the crackdown last week. CSW will continue to raise Dr Biscet’s case with EU and UK governments in the hopes that they will maintain pressure on the Cuban government for the release of Dr Biscet and other political prisoners.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said: “The actions of the Cuban government in the face of strong international criticism do not show a commitment to human rights reform. It is our hope that democratic governments around the world will stand in solidarity with these men and women who are being forced to pay an outrageous price just because they have asked that their basic rights be respected and upheld by their government.”

For more information or a picture of Dr Biscet or his wife, please contact Richard Chilvers, Communications Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8949 0587 or 020 8329 0045 or email

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