Cuban police arrest dissident whistle-blower

Cuban police arrest dissident whistle-blower
Web posted at: 10/19/2005 4:8:35
Source ::: Reuters

HAVANA: Cuban police arrested a dissident lawyer who denounced corruption in a state milk company two months ago, an opposition leader said yesterday.
Niurka Brito, 37, was arrested in her home hours before she was to hold a press conference on the alleged embezzlement case, Social Democrat Vladimiro Roca said in a telephone interview. She was being held at a local police station, he said.
"Her husband called me to say they took her away before dawn," said Roca, an outspoken critic of President Fidel Castro's government and son of a founding father of Cuba's ruling Communist Party.
Brito, a former director of the Havana province milk company, accused other executives at an August 9 news conference of skimming off funds with the illegal sale of 34 tons of powdered milk.
Since then, police have harassed Brito by investigating her relatives and friends in their homes and workplaces, she said in a statement issued by Roca.
In a separate incident, police evicted the secretary of Cuba's leading dissident and his family from a Havana house they borrowed two years ago from a painter living in England.
Christian Democrat activist Ernesto Martinez said that dozens of police officers arrived at his home at 5am (0900 GMT) to put his family and belongings on the street.
Authorities said they had no legal right to occupy the house. Martinez is the personal secretary of Oswaldo Paya, Cuba's best-known pro-democracy advocate and winner of the European Union's top human rights award-the Sakharov Prize-in 2002.

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