Physics professor Pedro Albert Sánchez was transferred to the hospital from the Valle Grande prison, after a week on a hunger strike, as reported to 14ymedio the opposition Manuel Cuesta Morúa. Although the hospital to which he was taken is unknown, a prison inmate confirmed to the activist that the academic’s health had deteriorated greatly in recent days.
Albert Sánchez has been in prison since November 3, 2021 and the Prosecutor’s Office requested five years in prison for him last July, but the trial has not yet been held. The professor was arrested after announcing a walk “for freedom of thought, expression and peaceful demonstration.”
In the most recent family visit that Sánchez received in prison, on September 13, he refused to receive the food that was brought to him. “The frustration and impotence that I feel right now I have no way of expressing,” said Pedro Antonio Albert, the professor’s son and resident abroad, in a video that he posted on Facebook.
“My dad’s situation is really worrying and I fear for his life,” Pedro Antonio wrote on social networks, to accompany his speech. “A professor of physics and mathematics who has educated thousands of students in Havana and Pinar del Río,” is how the young man described his father, adding that the academic suffers from cancer and ulcerative colitis.
“My dad’s situation is really worrying and I fear for his life”
“His only crime has been to freely express what he thinks,” laments Pedro Antonio. “My dad is going to die, he has been on a hunger strike for two days. My brother and I are worried because we know that when our father makes a decision, there is no one to intervene or make him change his mind.”
“I don’t want the worst to happen but I know the worst can happen,” the young man said then, and this Tuesday the family’s greatest fears are coming true with the transfer of Albert Sánchez to the hospital due to the deterioration of his physical condition.
The professor, heir to a long tradition of Cuban walkers, including such emblematic characters as Andarín Carvajal, a marathon participant in the 1904 Saint Louis Olympic Games, sought with his initiative to tour part of Havana a vindication of citizen freedom on the Island.
However, the mere announcement of that walk in solidarity with the Civic March of November 15 earned him the arrest and subsequent transfer to the Valle Grande prison.
“Release him, because my father is not a criminal. He is a professional with dignity, which is what you do not have,” his son demanded, addressing the agents of the Cuban political police. “That man has more dignity than all of you.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
