AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

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FACTS OF THE CASE:

3 November 2001 marks the beginning of the third year of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet's prison sentence in Cuba. Dr. Biscet, a physician and founder of the Lawton Foundation, is an anti-abortion activist and an outspoken critic of the Castro regime. The November 1999 arrest and detention of Dr. Biscet was part of a crackdown by the Cuban authorities on human rights activists and opposition leaders in the days leading up to the 9th Ibero-American Summit. Cuba hosted the Summit, which drew officials from 19 Latin American nations, Spain, and Portugal.

Dr. Biscet has long been the subject of government reprisals for his anti-abortion advocacy and criticism of the Cuban government. In the sixteen months leading up to the 1999 arrest, Cuban authorities detained Dr. Biscet on 26 separate occasions. In 1999, he was detained in the town of Pedro Betancourt while visiting dissidents who were conducting a fast to show support for political prisoners. In July 1998, Dr. Biscet was charged with the "improper use of state-owned materials" as he used state hospital computers in a study about abortions in Cuba. Dr. Biscet was expelled from the Cuban National Health system for his views and advocacy on abortion, which is legal in Cuba. He requested that the authorities put an immediate stop to abortions at all hospitals and clinics.

Dr. Biscet is currently being held in CUBA SI, a maximum-security prison in Holguin province, 450 miles from Havana where his family lives. On February 2000, he was found guilty of "insult to the symbols of the homeland," "public disorder," and "incitement to commit a crime" and sentenced to three years in prison. While serving his sentence in prison, Dr. Biscet has reported being beaten about the face and shoulders, kicked in the ankles, burned with a cigarette on his elbow, forced to strip, and threatened with longer detentions if he continued his involvement with opposition activities. Prison authorities placed him in a dark isolated cell with no running water after he conducted a 42-day fast asking for freedom for all political prisoners in Cuba. Because of the fast and subsequent poor quality food, Dr. Biscet has lost 20 pounds and is in poor health. He suffers from a severe fungal condition on his skin and his teeth and gums need urgent attention by a dentist.

His wife, Elsa Morejón, who is a nurse by profession, is currently unemployed because of her husband's human rights activities. The government papers denounced her as a "wife of a counter-revolutionary chieftain." She has been receiving threatening and obscene phone calls at her house.

(Sources of information for this case include: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lawton Foundation, and the Cuban-American National Foundation.)

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

• Article 12: (1): The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. (2): The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for: (c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases; (d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
• Article 09: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
• Article 05: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• Article 20(1): Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telegrams, faxes, airmail letters or emails:

• Calling on the Cuban government to release Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet immediately and unconditionally on the grounds that he is detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association; and
• urging the Cuban government to respect the rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Dr. Juan Escalona Reguera
Fiscal General de la República
San Rafael 3
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: 011 53 7 333 164

Salutation: Sr. Fiscal General

Sr. Jefe del Centro de Investigaciones del Departamento de Seguridad del Estado
Versalles
Santiago de Cuba
Prov. Oriente, Cuba
Salutation: Sr. Director

COPIES SENT TO:

Felipe Perez Roque
Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
Calzada No. 360
Vedado
La Habana, Cuba
011 53 7 333 085 or 335 261
Salutation: Sr. Ministro

Please send copies of your appeals, and any responses you may receive, or direct any questions you may have to Victoria Baxter, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, 1200 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005; tel. 202-326-6797; email vbaxter@aaas.org; or fax 202-289-4950.

The keys to effective appeals are to be courteous and respectful, accurate and precise, impartial in approach, and as specific as possible regarding the alleged violation and the international human rights standards and instruments that apply to the situation. Reference to your scientific organization and professional affiliation is always helpful.

To ensure that appeals are current and credible, please do not continue to write appeals on this case after 90 days from the date of the posting unless an update has been issued.

To verify the contents of this alert and/or the electronic signature, please download the signed file for this alert along with the Program's PGP Public Key.

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