15. Apr 2007

SUMMER 07 Empty Chair: Oscar Sánchez Madan

On April 13, 2007 Oscar Sánchez Madan, a correspondent for the Miami-based website Cubanet, was arrested, tried in secret-reportedly without defense council-and sentenced to four years in prison as a "pre-criminal social danger".

The charge was made in reference to the Article 72 of the penal code that states: Any person shall be deemed dangerous if he or she has shown proclivity to commit crimes demonstrated by conduct that is in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality.

Sánchez had previously been warned to give up his profession as a journalist.

''My position is the same: I will continue my work as a journalist,
and nothing and nobody will stop it.''

And in March of this year he published articles that uncovered a local corruption scandal. In April he was forced to join 31 of his colleagues-writers, journalists and librarians-in prison for exercising their right to free speech. Three of these were also arrested by the "political police", charged and sentenced for "dangerousness"

Although in December of 2006, it appeared to some that Cuba was going to ease its restraints on free speech, at least 24 journalists and writers have been imprisoned since then.

Sánchez is currently being held at the Combinado del Sur penitentiary in Matanzas.