he was confined since July this year, BosNewsLife learned Tuesday, November 9. Dr. Oscar E. Biscet was taken from his cell October 21 in Prison Kilo 8 in the province of Pinar del Rio, after carrying out a hunger strike of ten days to protest against his "inhumane imprisonment", dissident sources said.
He now shares a prison with an American citizen charged with human trafficking, his family was reportedly told by the prison director.
Dr. Biscet, who is known to be a Christian pro-life activist and a medical doctor opposing abortion and the death penalty as well as the Communist regime, was sentenced to 25 years on April 7 of 2003 as part of a massive crackdown on human rights activists across the island.
"DISRESPECTING SYMBOLS"
He was earlier sentenced to a three-year term on charges of "disrespecting patriotic symbols", after hanging a Cuban flag upside down during a news conference.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro has reportedly called him a "crazy little man." In a statement obtained by BosNewsLife Dr. Biscet’s wife, Elsa Morejón Hernández, said she was concerned about the health of her husband "after so any days in an isolation cell without any exposure to sunlight."
She noticed during a visit to the prison on October 30 that Dr. Biscet had "lost weight and was pale", but was "emotionally strong." Morejón Hernández suggested her husband, who in previous letters smuggled out of prison urged friends to pray" for him, continued to face psychological pressures.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro refuses to aknowledge Dr. Biscet as "dissident"
Source: Via Google Images
On October 12, prison authorities allegedly attempted to film her handcuffed husband in front of the Public Prosecutor, the Prison Director and other officials, during a medical examination. Dr. Biscet apparently made a victory sign with his fingers and cried out: "down with the Castro dictatorship!", she said.
VIOLATING CONSTITUTION
Morejón Hernández accused the prison of "infringing upon article 58 of the Cuban constitution that states that the integrity of a prisoner cannot be violated."
She said the incident happened when her husband "was taken to an office where he refused to be examined by a team of medical specialists, as a group of government officials appeared and tried to film him" in the presence of the officials.
"My husband told these physicians that they should not permit prison punishments which he had been subjected to. My husband refused to speak before the cameras and left. Aware he was being filmed as he walked away handcuffed, he made a victory sign with his fingers and cried out: "down with the Castro dictatorship!" Free-biscet.org, a website dedicated to the dissident, has in the past urged supporters to write to Dr. Biscet. PRISON KILO CINCO Y MEDIO Carretera Luis Lazo, Provincia de Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
SPECIAL CONCERT
Meanwhile Radio Prague, the international radio service of the Czech Republic, reported Tuesday, November 9, that one Czech rock group was marking the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a concert honoring Cuban dissents. Prazsky Vyber, "an extremely popular underground band in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s", were to play a special concert in Florida to express their support for the opposition in Cuba, Radio Prague said.
The event in an area of Miami known as "Little Havana" was to be broadcast to the island by the opposition television channel, Marti. Prior to the broadcast, the station was to show video messages from former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Czech-born former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright and American President George W. Bush.
A conference is also being held in Miami on the theme of central European states’ experiences in the transition from communism to democracy, and how they can be used by the Cuban opposition, if and when the Castro regime falls, the international broadcaster said.
With author: Stefan J. Bos
