In Havana, the Central Office of the State Prosecutor for the Republic of Cuba refused to accept the request presented by Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González's state appointed defense attorney. A change of status from "provisional" incarceration to conditional release, pending this human rights activist's upcoming trial was rejected by the state prosecutor as were the two witnesses considered by the defense.

Dr. Biscet's trial is imminent since the prosecutor's office is in possession of his file at this time.

 Edelmira Pedriz, prosecutor at the trial of " The Four " Cuban dissidents, authors of the document The Homeland Belongs to All, has been appointed prosecutor in the case of the human rights' activist, Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González, arbitrarily detained at the prison of the Technical Department of Investigation at Cien and Aldabó streets in Havana since November 3, 1999 for so-called crimes of "dishonoring national symbols and disorderly conduct."

On December 9, 1999, Sergio Hernández, the state appointed defense attorney presented before the Provincial Prosecutor's Office a change of status for Dr. Biscet from "provisional" incarceration to conditional release, basing his premise on the fact that his client has no criminal record and is in no way a dangerous individual. Prosecutor Pedriz rejected said request on December 21, 1999 as well as those witnesses considered by the defense of two independent journalists and two human rights activists.

The defense foresees possible sanction of three months to a one year jail term for Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. The events related to the accusations took place October 28, 1999. On that day, on the occasion of the Ibero-American Summit being held in Havana, Dr. Biscet held a press conference, along with numerous members of the peaceful opposition, where a Cuban flag was displayed in an inverted vertical position as a sign of protest for the human rights violations in Cuba.

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González heads the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, a humanitarian organization which promotes the defense of all human rights, particularly the right to life, through nonviolent means. For his struggle, Dr. Biscet has been arbitrarily arrested 26 times in 18 months, was expelled on February 1998 from the Cuban National Health System and, along with his family, evicted from his home, depending on the charity of family and friends to survive. This Cuban physician has been mistreated physically and psychologically, suffering beatings, threats, humiliations, extortions, intimidating interrogatories and arbitrary incarcerations in cells along with insane individuals and common criminals. On several occasions State Security has tried to subject Dr. Biscet to psychiatric examinations and is pressuring him to leave Cuba, to which this human rights activist has reiterated that he will never abandon his country.

Firm on his demands for justice until Cuba obtains its freedom, Dr. Biscet is in good spirits in spite of finding himself incarcerated in a "tapiada" ( a dark cell with no sunlight ) along with three common criminals.

We urgently ask all dignataries of democratic nations, human rights and health organizations, the international press and all men and women of good will to denounce the unjust incarceration and imminent trial of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González and demand the immediate freedom of this Cuban physician, whose only crime is to honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in his own country.

Further Information:

Angel Pablo Polanco ( independent journalist in Cuba)

011 - 537 - 416649

Support Committee for the Lawton Foundation, U.S.A.

(305) 265-9885