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This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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News Service 35/96
AI INDEX: AMR 25/09/96
23 FEBRUARY 1996


CUBA: TWO LEADERS OF CONCILIO CUBANO JAILED

The Cuban Government should immediately release Lazaro
Gonzalez Valdes and Dr Leonel Morejon Almagro, leaders of the
non-governmental coalition, Concilio Cubano, Amnesty
International said today.

      Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes was sentenced to 14 months~
imprisonment after being convicted of ~disrespect~ and
~disobedience~ at his trial yesterday in a municipal court in
Havana.  Dr Leonel Morejon Almagro was sentenced to six
months~ imprisonment at his trial today on similar charges.

      ~It is appalling that Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes and Dr
Leonel Morejon Almagro are detained solely because of their
peaceful activities with Concilio Cubano,~ Amnesty
International said. ~They are prisoners of conscience and
should be released immediately.~

      ~The insubstantial nature of the charges would seem to
indicate that the Cuban authorities are desperate to stifle
peaceful dissent.~

      The charge of ~disrespect~ is believed to have been
based on the fact that they refused to stop their activities
with Concilio Cubano after receiving three official warnings
from the police to do so.  In the case of Lazaro Gonzalez
Valdes, the charge of ~disobedience~ is reportedly based on
allegations that the family took some time to open the door
when police went to arrest him.

      The defence lawyer in both cases, Dr Jose Angel
Izquierdo Gonzalez, was reportedly informed of the substance
of the charges against Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes only an hour or
so before the three-hour trial started and he was only able
to speak directly to his client minutes beforehand.
      Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes is one of the four deputy
national organizers of Concilio Cubano and the president of
the unofficial Partido Pro Derechos Humanos en Cuba (PPDHC),
Party for Human Rights in Cuba, one of more than 100
unofficial groups which belong to the coalition. Dr Leonel Morejon  
Almagro, who is also a lawyer and the
president of Naturpaz, an unofficial environmental group, is
the national organizer of Concilio Cubano.

      Deputy national organizer of Concilio Cubano, Mercedes
Parada Antunez, who had been taken to hospital under police
guard following her arrest on 15 February, has reportedly
been transferred to a detention centre.  Reinaldo Cosano
Alen, also a deputy national organizer of the coalition
group, is also still reported to be in detention following
his arrest on 21 February.

      Dr Rene Gomez Manzano, one of the founders of Concilio
Cubano and the president of an unofficial lawyers~ group
called Corriente Agramontista, Agramontist Current, has also
been in detention since 17 February.  It is feared that
charges are to be brought against all three.

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For further background, see News Service 31/96 and 34/96.
\ENDS

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