The organization maintains the 201 prisoners released in January on its list, arguing that their sentences have not expired and they remain in practice on parole.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 13 February 2025 — The NGO Prisoners Defenders (PD) this Thursday recorded 1,150 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of January, 11 fewer than was reported in its previous monthly report.
The organization, based in Madrid, includes on its list the 201 prisoners released from prison, arguing that their sentences have not been extinguished and that they are actually on parole.
These prisoners were released in January with the Cuban Government’s decision to release 553 prisoners sentenced for “various crimes,” after the Biden administration removed Havana from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
The PD report adds five new names to the list and specifies that 16 were released after full compliance with the sanction or measure imposed.
The NGO also highlighted the treatment suffered by the 123 women included on its list, including two trans women who are imprisoned among men
The organization, one of the main registries of political prisoners in Cuba, indicated that there are 721 prisoners “with serious medical pathologies due to the lack of food, mistreatment, the repressive environment and the lack of adequate medical care.”
It added that it verified “70 political prisoners with serious mental health disorders without adequate medical or psychiatric treatment.”
It also explained that 33 minors are still on the list, of which 29 are serving their sentences and four are being criminally prosecuted “with precautionary measures without any judicial protection.” The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16 years.
Prisoners Defenders said that there are 222 people accused of sedition, when in most cases they participated in peaceful protests, and it added that 219 “have already been sentenced to an average of ten years of deprivation of liberty each” (including 15 minors).
The NGO also highlighted the treatment suffered by the 123 women on its list, including two trans women who are imprisoned among men.
“Cuba has had a total of 1,801 political prisoners” since July 2021, when the largest anti-government protests in decades were recorded on the Island, according to the NGO.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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