Cuban dissident freed after three arrests in 48 hours

The Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas was freed last Saturday, shortly after being arrested for the third time in 48 hours. According to his mother, Fariñas experienced "a very strong pain in his chest, shortness of breath and some fever" while he was at the police station, and had to be admitted to Santa Clara Provincial Hospital ? the same place where he spent four months on a hunger strike to demand the liberation of political prisoners who are ill.

"His immune system is weak, he gets migraines, he is hoarse, and he is dehydrated because his treatment was disrupted," his mother explained.

Fariñas, 49, is an independent psychologist and journalist who won last year's Sakharov Award, a US prize for non-Americans working toward social change. On February 23 of last year, he began a hunger strike after the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, another political prisoner who died after refusing to eat for 85 days. Fariñas lasted 135 days and then abandoned his protest after the Cuban regime announced it would free 52 dissidents out of the Group of 75 who were sentenced to jail terms in 2003.

The first of the three back-to-back arrests came last Wednesday, when Fariñas took part in a protest against the eviction of a pregnant woman who was living in a derelict building. After being detained for six hours, Fariñas was released, but arrested again the next day ? this time for 18 hours, when he and other dissidents were on their way to a police station to enquire about a colleague who was being held there.

Following this second arrest, a police chief told Fariñas that he would be taken in again if he took to the streets with other dissidents.

"He told me that as long as we kept going out on the street we would be arrested, because ever since the previous day's protest there was a special operative political situation in Santa Clara, and they were not going to allow a social revolt," said Fariñas.

The third detention took place while Fariñas was taking part in a tribute to the poet José Martí.

Hospital trial

Meanwhile, the trial for the biggest ever public-health scandal in Cuba came to a close on Monday, when the heads of a psychiatric hospital were given jail sentences of five to 15 years for the deaths of 26 patients in a psychiatric hospital in January 2010.

The victims died during a cold snap in Cuba, which was exacerbated by the poor conditions in the hospital, as well as the persistent stealing of food, clothes and blankets destined for the patients by the staff.

Thirteen workers at the hospital were given sentences, while others escaped with fines.