14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 18 January 2025 — Cuba granted parole to professor and activist Pedro Albert Sánchez, named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He had received a five-year sentence for contempt and public disorder after participating in the July 2021 protests, the NGO Justice 11J reported this Friday. The dissident, who since the end of 2024 had a license to serve his sentence at home because of his state of health – he suffers from cancer and is almost 70 years old – said on social networks that he refused to sign the notification about his conditional liberty.
Sánchez said that an agent visited him on Thursday at his home in the capital to let him know about the change. “It would be accepting that I committed a crime, and that didn’t happen,” he said.
Pedro Albert Sánchez is one of the Cubans declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International (AI), who have been released or have obtained some penal benefit after Washington’s decision to remove the Island from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, and activist Donaida Pérez have also been released from prison.
14ymedio also confirmed the departure from Agüica prison, in Matanzas, this Saturday, of political prisoner Félix Navarro. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) had already reported that the authorities contacted his wife, Sonia Álvarez, to announce his release.
“Félix is on his way home,” Annia Zamora, mother of political prisoner Sissi Abascal – sentenced to six years in prison – and close to Navarro’s family, told this newspaper. Zamora also said she had no news of the opponent’s daughter, Sayli Navarro Álvarez or of Abascal, who share a prison, but said she was excited about the release of her “guide” and friend from prison.
Navarro and his daughter were sentenced to nine and eight years in prison, respectively, just for going out to demonstrate on 11J in Matanzas, where he lives.
Brenda Díaz, the trans protester sentenced to 14 years in prison for her participation in the protests of July 11, 2021 and forced to remain in a men’s prison, was also released. In an image shared on social networks by journalist Luz Escobar, Díaz appears with her mother, Ana Mary García, who during her daughter’s years in prison demanded her release and denounced the unfair treatment of the authorities.
Most of the prisoners who have been released participated in the spontaneous demonstrations of 11J, according to the OCDH. The Cuban government has publicized the names of all 553 prisoners but announced that their releases will be progressive. However, it affirmed that 127 Cubans have been released so far. The figure contrasts with the six political prisoners registered by the OCDH.
According to Justicia 11J and Prisoners Defenders, all the beneficiaries were given a conditional release from prison, instead of being pardoned, something that they perceive negatively because the sentence is not extinguished. These two NGOs, as well as the OCDH and Cubalex, regretted that the measure did not include all the political prisoners, in addition to considering the way they were released as a double-edged sword.
In this regard, the vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court (TSP) of Cuba, Maricela Sosa, confirmed that these prisoners have not been pardoned or given amnesty, but, technically, they were released from prison for meeting certain criteria. Also, if they do not fulfill some requirements until the end of their sentence, such as “good behavior,” “they can return to prison.”
Compared to the 553 people that the Cuban authorities are going to release from prison, Prisoners Defenders registered at the end of 2024 a total of 1,161 political prisoners in Cuba. Justice 11J computes the sentenced 11J demonstrators at 549.
This is the first release of prisoners in Cuba since 2019, when the authorities pardoned 2,604 prisoners. The previous release occurred in 2015, when a total of 3,522 prisoners were released as a “humanitarian gesture” before the visit of Pope Francis.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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