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Cuba begins to free small group of political prisoners
AFP - Sunday, July 11
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HAVANA (AFP) - – Cuba's government Saturday began releasing a small group of ailing political prisoners as part of a wider agreement to free 52 dissidents, relatives of three released prisoners told AFP.
The three were released to undisclosed locations, and were reportedly among a group of 17 of the dissidents who plan to go to Spain.
The unusual prisoner release, set to be the biggest this decade on the communist-ruled island, was announced earlier this week after unprecedented talks between President Raul Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
Dissident Jose Luis Garcia Paneque phoned his family to tell them he was being transferred from the Las Tunas provincial prison to an unspecified location in Havana, according to his cousin Raul Smith.
Meanwhile the wives of dissidents Pablo Pacheco and Luis Milan received calls from other inmates telling them that their husbands had been released.
A church official said earlier that 10 Cuban dissidents would be freed and would travel to Spain "soon," as part of the deal negotiated by the Cuban Roman Catholic church.
Under the agreement, 52 political prisoners will eventually be freed, but the initial release had been expected to include just five detainees.
On Thursday, the church announced the names of five prisoners it said would be freed imminently, but none were apparently set free until the announcement of the three on Saturday.
The families of the five told AFP they had been contacted by authorities and told to be prepared to travel after their relatives were released.
On Saturday, the Archbishop of Havana said in a statement that another five detainees would be "leaving soon to Spain" as part of "the continuation of the process of prisoner releases."
All 52 were part of a group of 75 dissidents rounded up in 2003 and sentenced to jail terms of between six and 28 years.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was in Cuba this week to participate in the negotiations, said Madrid was willing to receive all the freed prisoners.
But the church said prisoners will not be forced to go to Spain, calling it a "proposal" and not "exile," as some in opposition activists charge.
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