Wednesday 13 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
DEATH PENALTY-CUBA:
Sentences Commuted But
Treatment Still Harsh
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) -
Prisoners in Cuba who
were facing the death
penalty but have had
their sentences commuted
to life imprisonment or
30 years in jail are
still being treated like
death row inmates, a
dissident organisation
complained on Tuesday.
"The announcement was
made five months ago,
but they're still being
meted out the same
punishment," Elizardo
Sánchez told IPS after
the launch of the Cuban
Commission for Human
Rights and National
Reconciliation (CCDHRN)'s
six-monthly report on
human rights in this
socialist Caribbean
island nation.
Sánchez, the leader of
the CCDHRN, said his
statement was based on
the testimony of family
members and even some
inmates who telephoned
the organisation from
jail.
The prison regime is
austere, but the
prisoners are allowed
visits every four
months, he acknowledged.
Cuban President Raúl
Castro announced in late
April that a group of
convicts facing the
death penalty, some of
whom have been waiting
for years for a
pronouncement by the
Council of State, will
now serve life sentences
or 30-year terms
instead.
Sánchez said this
decision was "positive,"
although he deplored the
lack of "public
information" about how
many prisoners would
benefit from the
measure, and how many
would serve 30 years or
be behind bars for life.
"Our Commission had to
make inferences to
estimate that between 20
and 30 people sentenced
to capital punishment
had their sentences
commuted, and about half
of these will serve life
sentences," says the
CCDHRN report signed by
Sánchez, where he is
described as a "human
rights observer and
former prisoner of
conscience."
The statement,
distributed to foreign
correspondents in
Havana, says it is
"disturbing" that
prisoners who had their
death penalties commuted
are still being held
under extremely harsh
conditions, pointing out
that some have been in
isolation for more than
10 years.
The government's
handling of the death
penalty issue remains
"very conservative," and
there are still dozens
of crimes to which
capital punishment still
applies. "It's a sword
of Damocles hanging over
Cubans," Sánchez said.
Nevertheless, the
decision to commute the
death penalty reaffirmed
the de facto moratorium
on capital punishment
that has been in force
in this country since
2003, after three men
who hijacked a passenger
ferry were executed by
firing squad.
Since then no death
sentences have been
handed down by the
courts and no new
executions have been
carried out.
The Cuban government
argues in favour of
keeping the death
penalty on the books as
a legal weapon to defend
the country from foreign
aggression and from
possible domestic
attempts to undermine
the state, as well as to
protect the population
from the most heinous
crimes.
In line with this
argument, Havana links
the possible abolition
of the death penalty to
a cessation of the U.S.
policy of "hostility and
terrorism" and the
four-decade U.S.
economic embargo,
according to official
documents like a 2004
letter from Cuba to the
United Nations Human
Rights Council.
"We have been forced to
choose, in legitimate
defence, the route of
establishing and
enforcing severe laws
against our enemies, but
always strictly within
the framework of the law
and with respect for
legal guarantees,"
Castro said in April at
the closing session of a
plenary session of the
Communist Party Central
Committee.
The Commission's report
indicates that between
January and July this
year, the CCDHRN
documented 219 cases of
political prisoners, 15
fewer than the 234 it
identified in 2007. But
the real figure could be
higher, due to the
hermetic nature of the
regime which does not
permit "any kind of
scrutiny," the dissident
group says.
The authorities do not
generally reply to the
organisation's reports,
nor do they provide any
statistics on the prison
population.
But Sánchez declared
that "short-term"
detentions have
increased, and the
CCDHRN has also
documented mistreatment
at the hands of the
police, something he
said had been avoided in
the past.
The document names 219
people who are serving
prison sentences or are
awaiting trial, and also
mentions 67 "Cuban
prisoners of conscience
adopted by Amnesty
International who are
still serving their
sentences." Ten of these
are under house arrest,
rather than in prison,
for health reasons.
The list includes three
persons sentenced to
death whose appeals to
the Supreme Court will
be analysed soon, Castro
said in his April
speech. Two are
Salvadorans, Raúl
Ernesto Cruz and Otto
René Rodríguez, who were
convicted of terrorism
in 1998 after taking
part in a series of
bombings of tourist
facilities in Cuba, one
of which resulted in the
death of an Italian
businessman.
The third is Humberto
Eladio Real, a Cuban
arrested on Oct. 15,
1994 after disembarking
on the island,
committing a murder and
stealing his victim's
car. He was tried and
convicted of murder and
acts against the
security of the state. |
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