Cuba releases longest-serving prisoner of conscience
Posted: October 24, 2007
Francisco Chaviano González had been in jail since 1994. © Amnesty International
Cuba's longest-serving prisoner of conscience has been released after 13 years.
Francisco Chaviano González, president of a human rights group, was arrested by Cuban State Security police at his Havana home on May 7, 1994, on charges of “revealing state security secrets”.
Moments before his arrest, someone had reportedly handed him a compromising document which was then found by State Security.
In April 1995 he was sentenced by a military tribunal to 15 years in prison. Amnesty International believed his trial was unfair and declared him a prisoner of conscience.
Francisco Chaviano González is the fourth prisoner of conscience to be released in Cuba this year. However, 62 other prisoners of conscience remain in jail.