Cuba frees dissident imprisoned 17 years

A veteran dissident leader who wrote a book about Cuban prison conditions while behind bars was freed over the weekend after serving his entire 17-year sentence, rights groups said Monday.

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, widely known by the nickname "Antunez," was released Sunday morning from prison in the central province of Villa Clara, the opposition group Bitacora Cubana said in a statement.

Originally arrested on charges of engaging in enemy propaganda and attempted sabotage in 1990, Garcia Perez was among the prisoners

Pope John Paul II had asked the government to release. But he was not among the 14 people the Cuban government said it had freed in conjunction with the January 1998 papal visit.

From Miami, the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful political lobby, sent a message Monday congratulating Garcia Perez upon his release and praising him for his "consistency of principles."

In Havana, another rights group confirmed Garcia Perez's release even as it reported a new case of a dissident attorney sentenced after a secret trial to 12 years in prison for painting graffiti and distributing pamphlets with an anti-government message.

Rolando Jimenez Posada was charged with disrespect for authority and revealing state secrets. He was tried in Havana over the weekend without a defense attorney or family members present, said Elizardo Sanchez, spokesman for the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation.

Sanchez said Jimenez Posada was transported to Havana for the proceeding from Isla de la Juventud, where he has been jailed since his arrest in early 2003.

It was unclear whether the time already spent in jail would count toward the 12-year sentence.

According to Sanchez, Jimenez Posada's relatives say authorities denied the defendant's request to represent himself in court and he was not allowed to attend his own trial when he protested.

"The biggest worry for the commission is that in two weeks, we have seen two similar secret trials behind closed doors, without relatives or defense attorneys present," Sanchez said.

Earlier this month, the rights commission criticized what it said was the secret trial of independent journalist Oscar Sanchez Madan.

Sanchez Madan, who wrote about dissident groups and the hardships of Cuban life, was arrested April 13 and tried in a secret hearing later that day, the rights commission said. He was convicted of the vaguely worded charge of "social dangerousness," and sentenced to four years in prison.

The Cuban government has not commented on either case.