Press Advisory
URGENT ACTION REQUESTED: Center for a Free Cuba calls on the international community to demand immediate release of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, and over 1,150 arbitrarily detained political prisoners in Cuba
Contacts: John Suarez (612)-367-6845 and Janisset Rivero (786)-208-6056
Dr Oscar Elías Biscet holds up a copy of the 1940 Cuban Constitution.( HazteOir.org, España)
Center for a Free Cuba. Washington DC, January 7, 2025. The following message was sent to international human rights organizations, civic leaders, and members of parliament.
Oscar Elias Biscet, Cuban human rights advocate and former political prisoner was detained by Cuba’s political police in Havana early this morning on the 12th anniversary of the founding of the Emilia Project, his human rights organization.
His whereabouts are unknown and the writ of habeas corpus is not respected by the authorities. Other members of the Emilia Project are unable to leave their homes which are surrounded by police.
At 12:22pm Elsa Morejón posted the following message on X: “Since 8 am when my husband Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet left home, I have not heard from him again.”
Several Cubans have died while in police custody. Four Cubans who participated in the protests of July 2021 have died in prison, reported the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights on January 6, 2025. Dr. Biscet is a physician who has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States. He is a follower of the strategic nonviolence doctrines of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Cuba has more than one thousand one hundred and fifty political prisoners sentenced arbitrarily by kangaroo courts. Since 1989, Havana has prohibited the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Cuba’s prisons. For many years, other human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been prohibited from entering the island.
The Center for a Free Cuba calls on the international community to demand their immediate release. The European Union should suspend its economic assistance treaty with Havana until Cuban political prisoners are released. In a petition circulating in various capitals, over 2,700 are asking that Cuba be removed from the UN Council on Human Rights.
Dear Colleague,
Oscar Elias Biscet, Cuban human rights advocate and former political prisoner was detained by Cuba’s political police in Havana earlier this morning on the 12th anniversary of the founding of the Emilia Project, his human rights organization.
His whereabouts are unknown and writs of habeas corpus are not respected by the authorities. Other members of the Emilia Project are unable to leave their homes which are surrounded by police.
Several Cubans have died while in police custody. Four Cubans who participated in the protests of July 2021 have died in prison over the past 13 months, reported the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights on January 6, 2025. One of them, Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, was beaten to death by prison officials on November 30, 2024, reports his mother Dania Maria Esplugas.
Dr. Biscet is a physician who has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States. He is a follower of the strategic nonviolence doctrines of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Cuba has more than one thousand one hundred and fifty political prisoners sentenced arbitrarily by kangaroo courts. Since 1989, Havana has prohibited the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Cuba’s prisons. For many years, other human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been prohibited from entering the island.
The Center for a Free Cuba calls on the international community to demand their immediate release. The European Union should suspend its economic assistance treaty with Havana until Cuban political prisoners are released. In a petition circulating in various capitals, over 2,700 are asking that Cuba be removed from the UN Council on Human Rights.
Respectfully,John SuarezExecutive DirectorCenter for a Free Cuba
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