CUBAN PHYSICIAN, PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE, SUFFERS TORTURES AT THE HANDS OF COMMON PRISONERS

CUBAN PHYSICIAN, PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE, SUFFERS TORTURES AT THE HANDS
OF COMMON PRISONERS
2008-04-03.

April 2, 2008.- Cuban prisoner of conscience, Dr. José Luis García
Paneque, who is forced to share a barrack with dangerous common
prisoners in Las Mangas Prison will declare himself on a hunger strike
if the criminals in his cell continue harassing him in such a cruel and
viscious manner. Dr. García Paneque, weighing a little over 100 lbs.,
has already endured beatings at the hands of such delinquents.

Moralinda Paneque, mother of the imprisoned doctor, learned that new
prisoners who are serving sentences for murder and drug addiction have
been introduced in her son's cell and that these convicts intentionally
make noise to prevent him from sleeping; they steal his personal
possessions and provoke him, seeking a physical confrontation with Dr.
García Paneque.

It has been a practice of Cuban prison authorities to confine political
prisoners next to violent delinquents as a method of physical and mental
torture. Cuban State Security offers special privileges to common
prisons provided they provoke, beat up, and humiliate, etc., Cuban
political prisoners.

Dr. García Paneque's health is in a critical state since he's been
confined to numerous prison hospitals suffering from prolonged chronic
diarrhea and bouts of rectal bleeding as a result of the malabsorption
syndrome he has developed since he was imprisoned in 2003. He's also
been diagnosed with a kidney tumor, pneumonia, and a pleural effusion of
the right lung.

Dr. García Paneque's wife and four children were forced to seek exile in
the United States on March 8, 2007, because of the violent acts of
repudiation that were being carried out against their home by mobs
instigated by Cuban State Security.

Dr. García Paneque was arrested on March 18, 2003, and sentenced to 24
years in jail during the wave of repression that the Cuban government
carried out against members of the civil society who were promoting
independent ideas on the island.

Dr. García Paneque's family makes the Cuban government responsible for
the life of this 42 year old surgeon and makes an Urgent Appeal to the
international community since they fear for the safety and physical and
psychological well-being of this Cuban physician who is unjustly
imprisoned in a maximum-security prison for defending the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in his own country.

Information obtained via telephone from Mrs. Moralinda Paneque (Las
Tunas, Cuba) and from Yamile Llanes, Dr. Paneque's wife.
Coalition of Cuban-American Women / LAIDA CARRO / E-mail:
joseito76@aol.com
FAX: 305-740-7323.

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