Lester Gonzalez Penton

Location: Cuba

Indendent journalist Léster Luis González Pentón was the youngest of the 75 opposition members arrested in Cuba in March 2003, and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He is one of the twenty one writers, journalists and librarians arrested during the Black Spring still detained today.

  

According to our information, Léster Luis González Pentón is being held at the Prisión de Jóvenes, Santa Clara, where he has undertaken a number of hunger strikes in protest against poor prison conditions. He reportedly had a hernia operation in prison hospital in early 2008 and is thought to have had another operation scheduled for 26 June. In addition, Léster Luis González Pentón has been diagnosed with chronic gastritis, sinusitis and lower back pain, and suffers from anxiety caused by his imprisonment and being separated from his young daughter.

PEN firmly believes that his conviction and continued detention are in violation of international human rights standards to which Cuba is party. Furthermore, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has formally declared that all those sentenced in the March 2003 clampdown are being detained arbitrarily. In light of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), signed by Cuban leaders on 28 February 2008, which states, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention", we strongly urge the Cuban authorities to release Léster Luis González Pentón, immediately and unconditionally.

 

We also remain deeply concerned about English PEN Honorary Members Normando Hernández González, Adolfo Fernández Saínz, Julio César Gálvez Rodriguez, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Pedro Argüelles Morán and José Luis García Paneque, and once again call for the freedom of our Cuban colleagues to be returned to them.

 

Léster Luis González Pentón is an Honorary Member of English PEN, Sydney PEN and American PEN.

Please send appeals:

 

• Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Lester Luis Gonzalez Penton;
• Referring to the fact that his sentence is in clear violation of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, to which Cuba is now a signatory;
• Expressing concern for all those detained arbitrarily following the March 2003 clampdown and calling for their releases
 

Appeals to:

 

Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente
La Habana, Cuba

 

Dr. Juan Escalona Reguera
Fiscal General de la República
Fiscalía General de la República
San Rafael 3
La Habana, Cuba

 

General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior
Plaza de la Revolución
La Habana, Cuba

Sr. Felipe Pérez Roque
Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Calzada No. 360
Vedado, La Habana, Cuba

Please send appeals to the diplomatic representative for Cuba in the UK:
 
His Excellency René J. Mujica Cantelar
167 High Holborn
London
WC1 6PA