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Alert

Prison guards brutally beat jailed journalist

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has strongly condemned the recent assault on Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a journalist who was brutally beaten by prison guards in the Guantánamo provincial prison, in eastern Cuba. The organisation urged the authorities to punish his assailants and protect prisoners from further harm.

On 31 December 2003, three prison guards forcibly took Arroyo Carmona from his cell and dragged him to an adjacent room where they beat him on the face and body. They also deliberately slammed a door on his leg. In a 7 January 2004 telephone call to his wife Elsa González Padrón, the journalist told her he was still suffering from the after effects of the attack.

"This is the second time in one month that a jailed journalist has been attacked," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. "The Cuban authorities are responsible for the state of health of the 30 journalists who are imprisoned in Cuba for having exercised their right to freedom of opinion, as guaranteed by several international treaties ratified by the country."

The journalist was attacked after complaining about his transfer to Building 4B of the prison, where 235 common-law prisoners are locked up in appalling conditions. Common-law prisoners are often used by the authorities to harass political prisoners.

Arroyo Carmona's wife said she was very concerned about her husband's health. He suffers from heart and liver problems and his blood pressure is unstable. He was placed in solitary confinement during the summer of 2003 for protesting against the ill-treatment meted out to another prisoner.

Juan Adolfo Fernández Saínz, another imprisoned independent journalist, was physically attacked by a common-law prisoner on 6 December as he tried to dissuade him from beating a fellow prisoner. No action was taken against his assailant.

Arroyo Carmona was arrested with 26 other independent journalists and about 50 other dissidents in an unprecedented crackdown in March 2003. They were sentenced to terms ranging from six to 28 years in prison (see IFEX alerts of 19 December, 13 November, 31 October, 4 and 3 September, 26 and 13 August, 18 July, 6 June and 27 May 2003 and others).