Scores of people were arbitrarily detained for short periods or subjected to persistent harassment. Several were tried and imprisoned as prisoners of conscience or confined to specific areas of the country. At least nine people were forced into exile. Some 600 other prisoners of conscience and several hundred political prisoners remained in prison. Trials in political and death penalty cases fell far short of international fair trial standards. There were reports of ill-treatment in police stations and in prisons. There were reports that unarmed civilians were shot dead by law enforcement officials in disputed circumstances. At least seven people were under sentence of death, but no executions were reported. The crack-down by the government of President Fidel Castro, begun in late 1995, on the Concilio Cubano, Cuban Council, continued in 1996. The Concilio Cubano, a loose coalition of unofficial groups of various kinds including political groups, human rights defenders, lawyers and women's organizations, had been established in October 1995 to work for political change through peaceful means (see Amnesty International Report 1996). A national meeting of the Concilio Cubano planned for February was banned by the authorities and between mid-February and mid-March scores of Concilio Cubano activists, including most of the national leaders, were detained (see below). In February, four people were killed when the Cuban Air Force shot down two small planes flown by members of Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue), a Cuban exile group set up to rescue "rafters" trying to escape Cuba by sea and based in Florida, USA. The Cuban Government claimed that the planes had entered Cuban airspace without authorization and that warnings had been given before they were shot down. It said that this and previous incursions were provocative and criticized the US authorities for failing to take steps to prevent them. Following a protest by the US Government, the UN Security Council called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate the incident. The ICAO investigation, the conduct and results of which were disputed by the Cuban Government, concluded that the two planes had been shot down without warning in international airspace. The UN Security Council subsequently "condemned the use of weapons against civilian aircraft in flight" without specifically naming Cuba, but also reminded all states of their duty "to take appropriate measures to prohibit the deliberate use of civilian aircraft ... for purposes that are incompatible with the aims of the Chicago Convention [the 1944 International Civil Aviation Agreement]". In response to the shooting-down of the planes, US President Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act which extended the US trade embargo on Cuba, in place since 1962, by seeking to take action against foreign companies investing in Cuba. The US Government also urged other governments, the vast majority of whom strongly opposed the Helms-Burton Act because of its extraterritorial nature, to join it in seeking other "concrete measures to promote democracy in Cuba". In November, the UN General Assembly again overwhelmingly condemned the US embargo. The Cuban Government continued to resist international pressure to take any significant initiatives on political or human rights matters and accused the US Government of interference in its internal affairs and of funding opposition groups. The Cuban Government continued to deny access to the country to the UN Special Rapporteur on Cuba, despite a resolution adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights calling on the government to allow him to visit. Scores of people were arbitrarily detained during the February round-up of Concilio Cubano activists. Most were released after a few hours or days. However, at least four people were tried and convicted on politically motivated charges; they were prisoners of conscience. They included Leonel Morejón Almagro, a lawyer and national delegate of the Concilio Cubano, who was initially sentenced to six months' imprisonment for "resisting authority", but had his sentence increased on appeal to 15 months' imprisonment after a further charge of "disrespect" was added. Dozens of members of unofficial groups were again detained for short periods in July and early August and warned not to attempt to organize protests or commemorations on 13 July, the anniversary of the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat in 1994 in which some 40 people died (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Aída Rosa Jiménez of the Movimiento de Madres Cubanas por la Solidaridad, Cuban Mothers' Solidarity Movement, was threatened with imprisonment if she went to church on 13 July, and Isabel del Pino Sotolongo, President of Seguidores de Cristo Rey (Followers of Christ the King), was threatened with several charges after being detained for displaying photographs of the victims of the tugboat disaster and distributing leaflets containing quotes from the Bible. Several dissidents had their freedom of movement restricted. In June, Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina and Radames García de la Vega were arrested in Havana, the capital, and charged with "disrespect" and "resistance", reportedly because of their attempts to organize a movement for university reform in the city. They were sentenced respectively to 12 and six months' "restricted liberty" as well as confinement to their home towns in eastern Cuba for a period of five years. The sentence was imposed before they could lodge an appeal. By the end of the year the appeal hearing had still not taken place. Other activists, including independent journalists and human rights defenders, were banned by police from travelling to certain places within Cuba or were refused permission to travel abroad to attend conferences. Pressure on dissidents and political prisoners to go into exile increased. Throughout the year, dozens of dissidents, including members of independent press agencies, were threatened with long-term imprisonment if they did not give up their activities or leave the country. Rafael Solano, Director of Habana Press (see Amnesty International Report 1996), and Eugenio Rodríguez Chaple, President of the Bloque Democrático José Martí, José Martí Democratic Block, both of whom were arrested in the February crack-down and held for several weeks under investigation on several charges including "associating with others to commit a crime", were released in April. While in detention and again upon release, both men were put under pressure by the Department of State Security to leave the country. Both eventually left Cuba for Spain, in May and July respectively, under threat of imprisonment if they did not do so. Both were warned not to try to return to Cuba. Roxana Valdivia Castilla, President of the press agency Patria, left Cuba, as did Mercedes Parada Antúnez, one of the four national deputy delegates of the Concilio Cubano. Both had been subjected to months of harassment and threats of imprisonment if they did not do so. Yndamiro Restano Díaz, a former prisoner of conscience and founder of the Buró de Periodistas Independientes de Cuba (BPIC), Cuban Independent Journalists' Bureau, (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995), who left Cuba in 1995, was prevented from exercising his right to return. Prisoners of conscience Luis Grave de Peralta Morell and Carmen Arias Iglesias, and political prisoner Eduardo Ramón Prida, were given early release from prison on condition that they went into exile. They were released in February through the mediation of a US congressman and left for the USA with assurances that their families would be able to join them. However, by the end of the year the immediate family of Luis Grave de Peralta Morell had not been permitted to leave Cuba, despite having reportedly fulfilled all necessary requirements. In November, prisoner of conscience Rubén Hoyos Ruiz was released on condition that he left Cuba. He had been sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 1990 for disseminating "enemy propaganda". While in prison, he was given an additional two-year sentence for showing disrespect to President Castro. Some 600 prisoners of conscience and several hundred other political prisoners were believed to remain imprisoned. Prisoner of conscience Domiciano Torres Roca (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995), arrested in 1993 and serving a three-year sentence for "enemy propaganda", was released two weeks before the completion of his sentence. Detention and trial procedures in all political cases and in criminal cases involving a possible death sentence continued to fall far short of international fair trial standards, particularly with regard to the right of access to defence counsel. The defence lawyer who represented Leonel Morejón Almagro (see above) reportedly had access to his client and to details of the case only hours before the trial hearing. The lawyer was fined after the trial for having asked "irrelevant political questions". According to testimony received during the year from a man detained during the 5 August 1994 demonstration in Havana (see Amnesty International Report 1995), he and 33 others were tried for "dangerousness" in September 1994 in a collective trial lasting 20 minutes in El Pitirre Prison. He had had no access to a lawyer and no contact with his family and was assigned a lawyer by the state only at the time of the hearing. None of the accused were allowed to speak in their own defence. In a welcome and unusual move, the Minister of Justice called on the People's Supreme Court to review the sentences passed on possible prisoner of conscience Juvencio Padrón Dueñas and three others (see Amnesty International Report 1996). He and two of the others had been sentenced to death for murder in September 1995 but had subsequently had their sentences commuted on appeal to 30 years' imprisonment. The review was requested on the grounds that serious irregularities had taken place both during investigation of the case and during the first trial hearing. Amnesty International had previously received reports that incriminating statements admitted as evidence during the trial had been obtained under duress and believed that the charges against Juvencio Padrón Dueñas may have been politically motivated. There had been no news of the outcome of the review by the end of the year. There were reports of ill-treatment at the time of arrest and during pre-trial detention in State Security facilities and police stations, as well as in prisons. Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina and Radames García de la Vega (see above) were reportedly beaten in a Havana police station following their arrest and had visible injuries on their faces at the trial hearing. When they attempted to complain about their treatment at the hearing, one of them was again beaten in the courtroom by a State Security official while handcuffed. Frequent reports continued to be received of beatings, sometimes with blunt instruments such as lengths of hosepipe, in many prisons and work camps, in some cases resulting in serious injury. In June, some 120 youths aged between 14 and 20 held in Valle Grande Prison went on hunger-strike to protest about the failure of the prison director to take action following their complaints that guards systematically beat and kicked them for reasons such as failing to stand in line for meals correctly. It was not known whether any official action was taken as a result of the protest. Prison conditions were generally very poor with frequent reports of insufficient food and medical attention and poor sanitation. Although such conditions may have resulted partly from general shortages in the country, there were frequent indications that food and medical attention were withheld as a form of punishment. Prisoners who protested about their treatment or refused to obey prison rules were kept in punishment cells, sometimes with no light or furniture, for weeks or months at a time, often on reduced rations and without access to medical attention. José Miranda Acosta, serving a 12-year sentence for "terrorism", was reportedly held in an underground punishment cell in Pinar del Río Provincial Prison (known as "Kilo 51_2") for over two years and deprived of family visits for his refusal to wear prison uniform and follow the "re-education" program. He was transferred to the Special Maximum Severity Prison in Camagüey (known as "Kilo 8") in September; no further news of the conditions in which he was being held had been received by the end of the year. Further reports were received of shootings by law enforcement officials in disputed circumstances, in some cases resulting in deaths. Iván Agramonte Arencibia died in May in Havana after reportedly being shot in the head at point-blank range by a police officer while handcuffed. Reports were received of shootings, in most cases fatal, by security officials between 1994 and 1996 of people attempting to steal food or cattle from state-run farms. No information was received regarding action taken against officials responsible for such shootings. At least seven men were under sentence of death, but no executions were reported. In April, Humberto Real Suárez, one of seven members of a Cuban exile group who had illegally entered the country in October 1994, was sentenced to death for killing a man at the time of his arrest. His appeal to the People's Supreme Court was pending at the end of the year. At least six other men were reported to be on death row, two awaiting a decision of the Council of State, which is the final arbiter in capital cases, and four pending appeal to the People's Supreme Court. All had been convicted of rape or murder. Throughout the year Amnesty International appealed to the authorities to release prisoners of conscience; to guarantee all Cubans the right to freely exercise their civil and political rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and to commute all death sentences. The organization also expressed concern about the practice of forcing dissidents into exile abroad and called on the authorities not to arbitrarily prevent anyone from exercising their right to return to Cuba. On the second anniversary of the July 1994 tugboat sinking, the authorities were again urged to conduct an independent investigation into the incident and to stop harassing those seeking to protest peacefully or commemorate the event. No replies were received from the authorities.

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