CUBA
Relatives of dead Cuban dissident call for inquiry
The death of a Cuban dissident in police custody spurred relatives and
rights advocates to request a government investigation.
BY WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
HAVANA --
Relatives and a Cuban human rights group called Monday for an
investigation into how a government critic died while in police custody
last month.
Manuel Acosta, a 47-year-old former boxer and member of a dissident
group known as Democracy Movement, was arrested June 21 in the town of
Aguada de Pasajeros on vague charges of criminality, according to a
letter signed by his cousin, Pedro Larena.
Police held Acosta at a municipal station where he was found dead three
days later, according to the letter distributed to international
journalists by a dissident human rights group. Authorities told Acosta's
relatives that he hanged himself in his cell, and that an autopsy
confirmed suicide.
But Larena indicated he became suspicious after officials refused to
turn over Acosta's remains, saying they needed at least 60 days to
process them.
Larena said he was afraid to provide further details, but spoke by
telephone through an intermediary. He said a cleaning lady working at
the station told family members that while in custody, Acosta yelled
anti-government slogans and insults at police, provoking a fight with an
officer.
During the altercation, the witnesses said, the officer's watch was
broken, prompting a group of police to swarm in from their nearby living
quarters and beat Acosta.
Copies of Larena's letter were sent to international journalists by
Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and
National Reconciliation.
In the letter addressed to Raúl Castro, Cuba's acting president and
defense minister, Larena asked that investigators interview ''10 or 12
police, including officers,'' as well as inmates at the police station
at the time. He did not say what he believed his cousin's cause of death
to be, but asked authorities to conduct a ``thorough investigation.''
Acosta ''died under circumstances that are very unclear at least,''
Sánchez said by phone.
Cuban government press officials could not be reached for comment.
Havana tolerates, but does not recognize dissident groups like Sánchez's
and rarely comments on their charges.
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