CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

RUSSIA, August 5th, 2010.- The president of the Russian Committee to Free the Five, Elena Lozhkina, denounced the cruel treatment given to the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters in the United States prisons.

While condemning the 13 days spent by Gerardo Hernandez, one of the prisoners, in a punishment cell known as "the hole," in the prison in Victorville, California, Lozhkina also deplored the sadism with which the US authorities seek to punish and torment the Cuban Five, as they are known worldwide.

Lozhkina told Prensa Latina that the whole process since the arrest of the men on September 12, 1998, has been plagued by "a great deal of unconstitutional fantasy," but, in relation to Gerardo, it has exceeded the limits of common sense.

Lozhkina condemned the two life sentences imposed on the antiterrorist fighter, who along with Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, alerted Cuba to subversive plans hatched in Florida, in the United States.

For almost 12 years, Hernandez has been not allowed to receive visits from his wife, and several times he has been taken to a punishment cell (the hole). This past week he was released after 13 days thanks to international solidarity with their cause, Lozhkina said.

Lozhkina asked US authorities why and by what right Gerardo was locked up in that hole. "We know that none of the five Cuban prisoners have violated prison rules or committed indiscipline to deserve punishment," she said. (Cubaminrex - PL-RHC)

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