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Family Appeals for Intervention for Cuban Doctor Jailed over Pro-Life Views

By Gudrun Schultz

HAVANA, Cuba, March 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The family of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is pleading for help in securing his release from a Cuban prison, after he was sentenced to 25 years for pro-life activities and peaceful demonstrations against the Communist regime.

A Christian medical doctor and pro-life activist opposing abortion and the death penalty, Dr. Biscet was imprisoned in 2003 for "disorderly conduct" and "counter-revolutionary activities." He had previously received a three year sentence for pro-life demonstrations, including hanging the Cuban flag upside down.

Dr. Biscet is founder and president of the Lawton Foundation of Human Rights, an organization condemned as illegal by the Cuban government.  The foundation seeks to promote the defense of all human rights through non-violent means.

Writing to his wife Jan.23, 2007, Dr. Biscet said, "During all these years in prison I have witnessed ignominious things that I cannot go into the details of due to their perversity; acts that threaten the decorous behavior of a civilized society."

"In spite of the difficult situation, I am not frightened nor will I go back a step in regards to my ideas. I am here by my own free will to condemn and not to retract myself and will serve this unjust sentence until God in the Highest puts an end to it."

He has been imprisoned in a maximum security cell since March 2003, with brief family and conjugal visits permitted every 3 to 4 months. Suffering from joint pain, dental infections and high blood pressure, Dr. Biscet's health has deteriorated in the damp  conditions of the Combinado del Este Prison, according to his family.

"He is presently subjected to prison conditions that are inconsistent with the United Nation's international treaties against inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment of which Cuba is signatory," his wife Elsa Morejon, a nurse, wrote in an open letter to the international community, physicians, and non-governmental human rights organizations on Feb. 27.

"Unfortunately, this situation goes unsolved by the Cuban government. His family, including myself, a health professional, are confronting an ethical, moral, and legal problem, reason why we request the immediate solidarity and cooperation of dignitaries, physicians, non-governmental human rights organizations, and of all those who value life's dignity so that my husband is able to receive medical treatment, is removed from the harsh prison conditions he is being subjected to and is immediately and unconditionally released."

Amnesty International identified Biscet as a "prisoner of conscience" in 1999 and urged international intervention in the case.

Prison officials at the Combinado del Este Prison recommended late in 2006 that Dr. Biscet be moved to a "less severe" prison system, but the family says they have not heard anything further. 

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