Prisoners Defenders denounced that there are more than 1,000 political prisoners in Cuba

There are currently 1,027 political prisoners in Cuba, most of them (894) as a result of the opposition demonstrations in July last year, the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) denounced this Thursday.

This organization, which publishes the list of political prisoners on the Caribbean island every month, reports that 38 of these detainees and convicts are minors, the youngest of 13 years old, and 42% of them have been accused of sedition.

Compared to the previous year, they note that April last year began with 140 political prisoners, a figure that increased significantly after the protests of July 11, in which thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the regime with the cry of “freedom”.

Prisoners Defenders maintains that more than 5,000 people were arrested at those 2021 protests and more than 1,500 were criminally prosecuted.

In total, the organization reports 1,204 political prisoners from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

“We recognize that the real figure is at least 30% higher. Nobody escapes that the total census of political prison in Cuba is simply unattainable for any organization except, of course, for the island regime,” the organization states in a statement published today.

They also state that they recognize “another 11,000 civilians, young people, not belonging to opposition organizations, with average sentences of 2 years and 10 months, who suffer 'pre-criminal' sentences, that is, without any crime committed”.

Prisoners Defenders, which constantly denounces the political situation in Cuba, accused the Cuban regime at the United Nations last week of “torturing” political prisoners on the island, in a report submitted to the UN Committee Against Torture and Special Rapporteur on torture.

(With information from EFE)

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