MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Amnesty calls on Cuban authorities to release dissidents “unfairly detained”

Orlando Zapata died in February after weeks of hunger strike to protest prison conditions; Cuban authorities branded him “an ordinary crook”-

Amnesty International Wednesday called on the Cuban authorities to release all dissidents “unfairly detained” and to revoke laws restricting freedom of expression and the right to free assembly and association.

The London-based group urged President Raul Castro to allow independent monitoring of the human rights situation in Cuba by inviting United Nations (UN) experts to visit and by facilitating monitoring by other human rights groups.

Amnesty said it made the call to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the arrest of 75 Cuban dissidents around 18 March 2003, of whom 53 were still in detention.

Orlando Zapata, one of the men arrested in March 2003, died on 22 February 2010, having spent several weeks on hunger strike in protest at prison conditions.

“Cuban laws impose unacceptable limits on the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly,” said Kerrie Howard from Amnesty.

Cuba desperately needed political and legal reform “to bring the country in line with basic international human rights standards.”

The long imprisonment of individuals “solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights” was not only a tragedy in itself but also remained a stumbling block to other reforms, including the opening of the dialogue needed for the lifting of the US unilateral embargo against Cuba, she said.