2008-01-22.
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas, Coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement
Havana, January 18, 2008-Prisoner of conscience, Antonio Ramón Díaz
Sánchez, is imprisoned in Canaletas prison in the Cuban province of
Ciego de Ávila. He is a member of the Coordinating Council of the
Christian Liberation Movement and is one of the principal organizers of
the Varela Project.
He is one of the Cuban Spring political prisoners, is 45 years old and
was sentenced to twenty-seven years in prison in April 2003.
In December 2004 he was diagnosed with Ischemic Cardiopathy and an
enlarged prostate (BPH) in the National Hospital for Prisoners that is
located inside the Eastern Compound Prison in Havana.
During 2007, a specialist in Proctology that has conducted various
diagnostic tests on him declared that Antonio Díaz is suffering from an
illness known as Immunologic or Idiopathic Colitis, after observing
significant deterioration and numerous ulcers in his intestines after
various colon rectoscopy. One cause in the worsening of this illness has
been constant stress.
Antonio Díaz Sánchez's wife has presented, by means of an attorney that
was contracted from a law practice, a request before the court that
sentenced Antonio, so that the necessary process could take place to be
considered for an extrapenal license for health reasons. According to
the attorney in charge of the case, the court accepted the proceeding a
week later.
This request was made in June 2007, but to date, almost seven months
later, the court has not responded and has not sent Antonio the
corresponding medical report to the National Hospital for Prisoners,
thereby not abiding to what was legally established. Rule 132
establishes the proceedings to be followed in the case of a request for
an Extrapenal License.
Antonio has been prescribed a specific nutritional diet by the doctors,
which he only partially receives from the prison authorities. For
instance, in the last twenty days Antonio was not able to eat breakfast
for eleven days because he was not given the food that his rigorous diet
requires for his illness. More information can be found on
Antonio Díaz Sánchez declared that the only civic and peaceful recourse
that he can take to defend his right to life is his own life and that is
why he has decided to not accept any more of the medication that the
doctors have prescribed and that many times he receives incompletely and
irregularly and he will also refuse any more consultations with a
specialist, in protest against the arbitrariness of the court that
should have already sent him a medical report many months ago to decide
whether the alleviation or cure of his illness is incompatible with his
remaining in prison. It is evident that unjust imprisonment and the
conditions in which he is under confinement are the most direct cause
for his illness worsening.
Antonio has announced that he will begin to take increasingly more
drastic peaceful acts of protest against the inactivity of the court
that is condemning him in this way to an early death.
Antonio Díaz is imprisoned in a cell, which is 5.5 meters wide and
equally long, with twenty six common prisoners. In this limited area
there are nine three-level bunks. Antonio's health is irreversibly
deteriorating every day that he spends in prison. He is being subjected
to short-term annihilation.
Our call is for everyone inside and outside of Cuba to raise their
voices to save the life of Antonio Díaz Sánchez, for his release, and
for all those who are imprisoned in Cuba for peacefully defending Human
Rights.
For more information or to obtain a copy of the press release, please
contact: Julio Hernández or Francisco De Armas, International
Representatives, Christian Liberation Movement, (787) 549-1805,
mcl2004jhs@yahoo.com, fdamcl@cs.com
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=13588
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