CUBA
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.
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Testimony provided via telephone from Cuba and translated to English.
Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA CARRO
ELSA MOREJON HERNANDEZ
Acosta 464 entre 8va y 9na, Lawton, Municipio 10 de Octubre, La Habana, Cuba.