Cuban dissidents beaten, detained

Havana, Feb 6 (IANS/EFE) Cuba has detained 37 dissidents in eastern Camagey province for showing solidarity with an ailing political prisoner, a human rights group said.

Elizardo Sanchez, chairman of the NGO Cuban Human Rights Commission, told foreign journalists Friday that 23 people were “brutally beaten” and arrested Wednesday after a street demonstration.

Fourteen other dissidents were detained Thursday as they gathered in a house to plan action in support of Zapata Tamayo. Five detainees were later released, he added.

Zapata Tamayo is being treated at a hospital in Camaguey after his hunger strike to protest mistreatment by prison authorities.

He was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for disrupting public order.

Cuba’s communist government is holding 201 political prisoners, a report released last month by the commission said.

–IANS/EFE