MIAMI, United States.- The Cuban political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, imprisoned since the massive demonstrations of July 11, 2021 in Santiago de Cuba, is being a victim of psychological torture by the prison authorities of the Mar Verde prison, while east of the country, according to his sister Ana Belkis Ferrer.
In a telephone conversation with CubaNet, Ana Belkis explained that her brother has the right to a weekly five-minute call which he uses to tell his family about his condition and the torture to which he is subjected in prison.
During the last call last Friday, which also coincided with the visit that his wife is allowed every two months on Saturday, he said that for almost a week he has not been able to sleep because they are making noise in the vicinity of the isolation cell where he has been since August.
“They are banging on the iron doors of the cells at dawn. The shots are at least 10 and approximately every one hour. Every time she is trying to fall asleep they start pounding and keep her from sleeping. So the headaches have intensified, the deafening ringing in the ears,” she said.
Ana Belkis denounced that these are “mechanisms of torture that the dictatorship usually uses. On other occasions, in 2003, they had implemented it against him, and now they are again in that plan to destabilize him, to torture him even more physically and psychologically.
“What they are doing to him are very well-studied torture methods, because a person who cannot sleep well or at least a little well ends up unbalancing their nervous system. By having him for several days without falling asleep and when he is sleeping they wake him up, they are trying to unbalance him,” said Luis Enrique Ferrer, brother of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU).
José Daniel Ferrer was arrested on the afternoon of Sunday, July 11, 2021 when he was preparing to join the demonstrations that day. During that historic day, in more than 60 locations in the country, Cubans took to the streets to ask for freedom and no more repression.
That day he was arrested and “transferred to a dungeon in the Versailles torture center, and in early August they sent him from there to the Mar Verde prison,” where he has been isolated ever since.
Since his imprisonment, José Daniel Ferrer was accused of the alleged crimes of “public disorder”, “disrespect” and “spread of epidemics”, Ana Belkis said. However, “then they decided to only leave him the crime of public disorder.”
So far, the authorities “say that his case is under process for cause number 128 of 2021.” José Daniel has been in prison for almost 10 months and there is still no known trial date.
“They are very skilled, and they know when they have solidarity like José Daniel, for the amount of time he has been in the fight for the freedom of Cuba. So they judge all the others first to observe the reactions, and depending on that they see how to do with him, how many years they are going to impose on him, ”he sentenced.
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