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INCARCERATED PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE, DR.
OSCAR E. BISCET, PUNISHED IN ISOLATION
CELL
May 5, 2003
On Friday, May 2, Elsa Morejon Hernandez,
wife of Dr. Oscar E. Biscet, traveled to the
Provincial Prison in Pinar del
Rio
province called Kilo Cinco y Medio where her
husband was transferred on
April 24,2003. Unable to see him she was
informed by the director of the prison of
her husband's critical situation.
Dr. Biscet, founder of the Lawton Foundation
for Human Rights, was being applied the
strictest prison code regulations because he
refused to wear the common prisoners'
uniform. He is presently punished in
solitary confinement wearing only his
underwear, prohibited from receiving family
visits, food provisions or toiletries nor
have access to any literature or any writing
material. His punishment will continue
indefinitely until he accedes to wears the
uniform.
Dr. Biscet practices nonviolent civil
disobedience and has previously declared
himself a "plantado", term used by Cuban
political prisoners who refuse to comply
with any prison discipline which undermines
their dignity. As a political prisoner of
conscience he considers it unacceptable to
wear a common prisoners' uniform.
Dr. Biscet, afro-Cuban and 41 years old, has
been arbitrarily detained 26 times in the
past and has endured systematic
psychological and physical abuses from Cuba
authorities since 1998. For years he has
suffered from a severe gum infection that
has not been treated.
For his peaceful pro democracy struggle, Dr.
Biscet served a three year sentence in a
maximum security prison in
Holguin
province, 768 kilometers away from his home.
He was released October 31,2003 only to be
arrested 36 days later on December 6 when he
was about to hold a meeting with fellow
activists.
Dr. Biscet remained incarcerated and was
included in a wave of repression that took
place throughout the Cuba from March 18 to
April 11 when almost 80 activists were taken
before summary trials and given sentences of
up to 28 years in prison and three afro
Cubans were executed by firing squad for
trying to hijack a ferry to the United
States.
On April 7, 2003, Dr. Biscet was tried and
sentenced to 25 years for serving as a
mercenary to a foreign state. On April 24 he
was transferred to the maximum security
prison in Pinar del Rio called Kilo Cinco y
Medio.
Elsa Morejón expressed her deep concern for
the physical and mental well being of her
husband and urgently appeals to heads of
states, leaders of political, civic,
religious and professional organizations,
the press, and all men and women of good
will worldwide to demand before the Cuban
government the unconditional and immediate
freedom of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and all
those prisoners whose only crime is to honor
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in
their own country.
---------------------------------
Testimony provided via telephone from Cuba
and translated to English.
Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA
CARRO
Email:
Joseito76@aol.com
ELSA MOREJON HERNANDEZ
Acosta 464 entre 8va y 9na, Lawton,
Municipio 10 de Octubre, La Habana, Cuba.
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