The activist, sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the 11J protests, will have to wait another six months to request the benefit again, despite her delicate state of health.
MADRID, Spain.- The prison authorities rejected for the second time this year the request for conditional release presented by the political prisoner Sissi Abascal Zamora, a member of the Ladies in White and sentenced to six years in prison for her participation in the protests of July 11, 2021 (11J) in the Matanzas town of Carlos Rojas. Although he has already served more than half of the sanction, he must wait another six months before submitting the procedure again.
The decision was confirmed to Martí News by her sister, Lissy Abascal, who was able to visit her this week and expressed concern about her health. He reported: Sissi “still has a cyst on her ovary, which is due for surgery, and that keeps us very worried about her hygiene and the conditions she is in.” He also added: “We are very concerned about my sister’s health situation in that place.”
Last June, Abascal already he had been denied parole. According to his mother, Annia Zamorathis decision is part of a systematic punishment for her stance of resistance within the prison, where the authorities maintain her with the status of “negative prisoner” and have denied her any reduction in sanction.
The new rejection comes after several refusals to modify their prison status, even in contexts of medical complications. Various activists and human rights organizations denounce that cases like theirs reflect a systematic use of the penal system to exert pressure on opponents and protesters of 9/11.
The prisoner’s physical deterioration has been a cause for alarm since the end of August, when she underwent surgery for bartholinitis. The family was not notified of the procedure and only learned about what happened when reports circulated on social networks warning about her gynecological situation. Despite the operation, and without having the necessary hygienic conditions for her recovery, Sissi Abascal was returned a few days later to the La Bellotex women’s prison, in Matanzas.
Accused of the alleged crimes of “contempt”, “attack” and “public disorder”, since her imprisonment in 2021 she has suffered constant repression in the penitentiary center, aggravated by constant threats for denouncing the inhumane conditions she faces in prison.
