Raymundo Perdigon Brito

Raymundo Perdigón Brito
Nationality Cuban
Occupation Journalist

Raymundo Perdigón Brito is an independent Cuban journalist. In December 2006 he was sentenced to four years in prison for "Social Dangerousness".

In 2006 Perdigon was acting as a freelance journalist. He had published articles on foreign websites that documented government abuses.[1] On 17 November 2006 he and his sister Ana Margarita Perdigon founded the Yayabo Press, a news agency, with some other journalists. On 29 November 2006 Perdigon was arrested and told he would be imprisoned if he continued reporting.[2] He refused. At a summary trial six days later, on 5 December 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison for "social dangerousness".[3][lower-alpha 1] When his family was leaving the courthouse, they were attacked and beaten up. Perdigon's father was hospitalized. Ana Margarita Perdigon replaced him as editor of the Yayabo Press.[2]

Perdigon was one of three Cuban journalists who were given long prison sentences in 2006, the other two being Armando Andrés Betancourt Reina and Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez.[6] A report by published by Human Rights Watch in November 2009 said he had repeatedly been beaten by the guards and placed in solitary confinement.[1] In February 2009 the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) called on the Cuban government to release 25 journalists who were being detained for independent reporting, including Raymundo Perdigon Brito.[7] Perdigón was released from prison on 24 November 2010. He denounced the poor living conditions in the Nieves Morejón prison in the Sancti Spíritus province, where he had been held. He said he would continue to fight for freedom.[8]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The Cuban government often charges journalists with "pre-criminal social danger". Although they have not committed any crime, they are imprisoned as potential threats to society.[4] Other journalists imprisoned under this charge include Oscar Sanchez Madan and Ramon Velazquez Toranso.[5]

Citations

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.