Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta

Santiago de Cuba/Frankfurt am Main (October 31, 2007) - As the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) reports, the health condition of the political prisoner Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta in Cuba changed drastic for the worse. The dissident trade unionist and civil-rights activist is already imprisoned for four years. According to reports of his son, Antonio (Tony) Villarreal, he had already lost 60 percent of his former weight because of the lack of supply. Martin Lessenthin, spokesman of the board of the ISHR, requests the Cuban government to release Villareal Acosta immediately and to allow him to leave for medical treatment abroad.

At the moment Villarreal Acosta scales only below 40 kilogram. "He looks so meager as if he is in a camp of the Second World War" declares his son who lives abroad to the ISHR in Frankfurt. He got the information per phone by Silvia Aguado Alfonso, the wife of the prisoner.

Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta, 57, had been arrested during the wave of suppression in Cuba in March 2003 together with 74 other dissidents and after that had been condemned to 15 years in prison in a summary process. At the time of his arrest he was the president of the independent democratic front and had been engaged for the independent transportation union CCGPV in Corralillo as a member of the Executive Board. He published reports about problems of the Cuban transport facilities, the food supply and about the lack of apartments. He is imprisoned in the prision La Pendiente in Villa Clara.

According to information of the ISHR it is known that 306 people are imprisoned because of political reasons. The prisoners acted as dissident journalists, independent librarians, trade unionists or physicians before their arrest. The ISHR requests the release of all political prisoners who are arrested on the Caribbean Island which has been ruled dictatorial by the Castro brothers for nearly 50 years: "Cuba is a member of the human rights council and judges over the human rights situation in other states."