Cuban Reporter Yuri Valle Roca Released After Five Days of Detention / 14ymedio

Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca. (14ymedio)
Lazaro Yuri Valle Roca. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, 24 March 2016 — The freelance reporter Yuri Valle Roca was released Thursday after being detained for five days in a police station. The activist was arrested last Sunday and Freedom House, an organization in support of human rights, today asked the government of Cuba for his immediate release.

Police authorities informed Valle Roca that he was being charged with the crime of “attack,” but the journalist complained that it was he who was beaten in the face and other body areas during the arrest. In the police station of Santiago de las Vegas, where he was held, he remained in isolation, without contact with other detainees, he says.

Last Sunday, hours before arrival to the island by United States President Barack Obama, some 60 dissidents were arrested in Havana after the traditional weekly march of the Ladies in White. Most were released hours later, but Valle Roca remained missing until Wednesday when he was about to contact his family by phone.

Freedom House said in its statement Thursday that “despite President (Raul) Castro saying that it respects human rights, the Cuban government continues its shameless repression of freedom of expression, press freedom and the right to peaceful protest.”