HAVANA, Cuba.- The Cuban political prisoner Luis Robles Elizástegui has been in a punishment cell since Saturday, April 23, in the Combinado del Este penitentiary in the capital of the island, where he is being held, according to what was reported by telephone to CubaNet an inmate on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The source assured that he witnessed how Luis Robles was rebuked by an officer who identifies himself as Lieutenant Ramoncito. The young man would have been complaining about the incessant mistreatment and the intolerable conditions to which prisoners are subjected in that prison facility, and this motivated the aforementioned officer, in addition to scolding him, handcuffing him and even hitting him on the head.
The same source added that several prison guards joined the beating, after which Luis Robles Elizástegui was confined to a punishment cell. The reason for the retaliation was confirmed by the brother of the prisoner of conscience, to whom Luis Robles himself described the events in a telephone conversation that same day.
Robles Elizástegui was imprisoned on December 4, 2020 for circulating on the central boulevard of San Rafael with a poster asking for freedom and an end to repression. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by the non-governmental organization Prisoners Defenders in early January 2021.
The political prisoner, under provisional detention in the Combinado del Este for more than 12 months, was finally sentenced to five years in prison last March, his brother, Landy Fernández Elizástigui, confirmed to CubaNet.
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