Reporters Without Borders correspondent turns 60 in priso

Cuba - Reporters Without Borders correspondent turns 60 in prison
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 19:03

In poor health ever since his arrest in 2003, the Reporters Without
Borders Cuba correspondent, Ricardo González Alfonso is today
"celebrating" his 60th birthday in jail. Sentenced to 20 years in prison
just for doing his job, González has had to endure the harassment and
mistreatment that is standard fare for Cuban prisoners of conscience.

González founded and ran the Manuel Márquez Sterling training centre for
independent journalists and edited the independent biweekly De Cuba. He
won the 2008 Reporters Without Borders press freedom prize in the
"journalist" category.

He was arrested on 18 March 2008 during an unprecedented government
crackdown on dissidents that is now known as the "Black Spring." Tried
on 4 April 2003 with his friend, poet and fellow-journalist Raúl Rivero,
he was convicted of being an "agent in the pay of the United States"
although no evidence was produced to support this charge.

Nineteen of the 25 journalists currently imprisoned in Cuba were
arrested during the same "Black Spring" crackdown and are serving
sentences ranging from 14 to 27 years in prison.

Despite serious health problems, especially lung ailments, González
continues to be held in a cell in Havana's Combinado del Este prison.
After undergoing four operations in 2006 and 2007 and a long spell in
hospital, he was returned to his prison cell on 27 January 2008 although
still in very poor health. On 26 January of this year, he finally
received treatment for which he had been waiting for months.

Like other political prisoners, he has been held in collective cells
along with ordinary offenders and, as a result, has been exposed to
harassment and violence from cellmates. "We hold the government
responsible for Ricardo's health," his wife, Alida Viso Bello, said.

There has been no let-up in government harassment of dissidents,
especially bloggers, since Raúl Castro took over as president on 24
February 2008. In the latest case, dissident journalist Carlos Serpa
Maceira reported at the start of this month that he had been banished to
the Isle of Youth after being arrested and beaten.

The Cuban government's signing of the UN's two conventions on civil and
political rights, including freedom of expression, has not been followed
by any sign of an improvement in respect for human rights. Like all the
other imprisoned journalists, González must be freed.

Cuba - Reporters Without Borders correspondent turns 60 in prison |
Fromtheold (18 February 2010)
http://fromtheold.com/cuba-reporters-without-borders-correspondent-turns-60-prison-2010021816665.html