Repression update: Latest tally on political prisoners in Cuba: 1,066, including 33 minors

From our Bureau of Socialist Tolerance and Compassion

Castro, Inc. keeps sending dissidents to prison. And due to the fact that many of its political prisoners are serving very lengthy sentences, the total number of dissidents behind bars keeps climbing. All of these prisoners endure barbaric treatment. As two of them said yesterday, “They treat us brutally.”

From 14yMedio via Translating Cuba

The NGO Prisoners Defenders (PD) raised its count of the number of political prisoners in Cuba to 1,066 on Wednesday, after including three new inmates on its list in January. The organization, based in Madrid, indicated in its monthly report that, in January, ten political prisoners were released and removed from the list.

The document published on the NGO’s website said that there are 33 prisoners who are minors, of which 29 are serving sentences and four are being criminally prosecuted. The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16 years old.

According to PD, “17 of the minors have already been convicted of sedition” with sentences of five years in prison. “Currently, most are under house arrest or doing forced labor without internment.”

The statement added that 225 demonstrators have been accused of sedition, and at least 213 have already been sentenced to an average of ten years of deprivation of liberty each.

PD also said that there are 114 prisoners (including several transgender) who “still have criminal and political penalties.”

“All trans women in prison for political reasons are imprisoned among men, which also happens with common trans prisoners, suffering situations indescribable for their sexual condition,” the organization denounced.

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