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It recently came to our knowledge that the independent journalist Armando Betancourt has been arrested while covering the eviction of squatters in central Camagüey, Cuba, last 23 May and since then has been kept in solitary confinement by the the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) allegedly accused of "public disorder". Reports say he has been harshly hit and bruised by the police.

This purely arbitrary action shows once more the true face of Fidel Castro's regime and explains why Cuba has one of the highest rates of journalist imprisonment in the world.

We vigorously protest against these deplorable attitudes and demand the immediate release not only of Armando Betancourt but of all other prisoners of conscience whose only crimes are to think by their own heads and to be faithful to democracy and freedom of speech.

José RIBEIRO E CASTRO
EPP-ED spokesman for Human Rights in Cuba

For further information:
Office of José Ribeiro e Castro MEP, Tel: +32 2 2845783
Marek Hannibal, EPP-ED Press Service, Tel: +32 475 753048

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