CUBA: Communist Cuba is holding at least 71 prisoners of conscience, often in cruel and inhumane conditions and subject to abuse by prison guards, according to Amnesty International (AI).
Two years after the harshest wave of repression since the aftermath of the 1959 revolution, Cuba's government continues to fiercely suppress freedom of expression despite international pressure, the human rights watchdog has said in a report.
"All you have to do in Cuba to spend months or even years in jail is to disagree with the authorities," Amnesty said.
The report coincides with the annual meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which will discuss Cuba, one of the last communist governments in the world.
Amnesty said co-operation with human rights groups, writing press articles, talking with the media, meeting US officials or talking with exiles in the United States were all motives for lengthy prison sentences of up to 28 years.
Gerardo Ducos, an Amnesty researcher for Cuba, said there were almost certainly more than 71 prisoners of conscience in Cuba, but it had not been possible to review judicial records of more cases. Amnesty has been denied access to Cuba since 1988.
Amnesty called on the US to end its embargo on Cuba, which aims to overthrow communism on the island, because it impoverished ordinary Cubans and served President Fidel Castro as a pretext for cracking down on dissent.
AI cited four cases of physical abuse of political prisoners in Cuba during the last year.
Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, sentenced to 20 years in 2003, was beaten in October by prison guards while handcuffed. The guards stamped on his throat until he lost consciousness.
Nine dissidents were also subjected to "cruel, inhumane and degrading" conditions when they were locked in tiny cells for between two and four months.
The prisoners were forbidden to leave the cells, which have no natural light or sanitation, refused visitors and forbidden in some cases to wearclothes.
Cuba has refused calls from the West to release political prisoners although it has offered to negotiate with the European Union on human rights and prison conditions, after a recent thaw in relations with the 25-nation bloc.