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M. Continuo

Cuba expected to free 7 dissidents


    MADRID (Reuters) - Cuba will free seven of 59 dissidents held since 2003 for health reasons in the first such release since last August, Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Friday.

    "The decision was made unilaterally by the Cubanauthorities and we are very satisfied," Moratinos told Spanishradio from the city of Cordoba, noting that the move came afterdialogue with Cuba.

    The dissidents will be freed for health reasons, Spanishradio said. The newspaper El Pais reported on its Web site thatfour of them will be sent to Spain with their families toreceive medical treatment.

    Cuba's main rights group said the seven dissidents to bereleased included Omar Pernet Hernandez, Jose Gabriel RamonCastillo, Alejandro Gonzalez Raga, Jorge Luis Garcia Panequeand Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos.

    The group headed by rights activist Elizardo Sanchez saidthe dissidents had been brought from different jails aroundCuba to Havana's main prison for their release.

    "This is very good news," said dissident Manuel CuestaMorua. "It shows the Cuban government is responding to requestsfor their release from the international community."

    The releases showed that a strategy of dialogue andengagement of Cuba's communist government advocated by Spainwithin the European Union has paid off with "concrete results,"he said.

    The dissidents were arrested in a political crackdownordered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro in March 2003 that put 75of his opponents in prison with sentences of up to 28 years.

    Sixteen had already been freed on health grounds.

    Sanchez said there were 234 political prisoners in Cuba atthe end of 2007, down from 283 a year before, indicating a dropin the number of Cubans behind bars for political reasons sinceRaul Castro took over as acting president from his ailingbrother Fidel in mid-2006.

    Last August, Cuba released on parole its longest-servingpolitical prisoner, Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez, a former mathsprofessor and human rights activist who had spent more than 13years in jail.

    Morua said more releases can be expected as Havana preparesto sign the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights and a similar pact on economic and social rights by nextmonth. This would oblige Cuba to accept regular U.N. monitoringof its human rights record from 2009.

    The Cuban government does not allow the International RedCross access to its prisons. It denies holding any politicalprisoners and labels dissidents "counter-revolutionarymercenaries" on the payroll of its arch-enemy, the UnitedStates.

    (Reporting by Jason Webb in Madrid and Anthony Boadle inHavana, editing by Chris Wilson)