According to attorneys in Havana, the government is seeking a a six-year prison sentence for Vladimiro Roca and five-year terms for Rene Gomez Manzano, Felix Bonne and Marta Beatriz Roque.
They were arrested in July 1997 and were formally charged last Thursday.
State Department spokesman James Foley said Wednesday the only crime of the four ``was to speak the truth about the repression of freedom in Cuba, to criticize the government's failed economic policies and to call for peaceful, democratic change.
``This self-condemning action by the Cuban government starkly reveals its utter disregard of the international community, which has unanimously urged that the four be released,'' he said.
Foley said the four have been held in cells with common criminals and have been denied adequate medical care.
Roca, son of the late Cuban Communist Party leader Blas Roca, and the others were leading members of the opposition coalition Concilio Cubano when they were jailed 14 months ago.
They had criticized the Communist Party for not presenting solutions to the country's severe economic crisis.
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press