Alina Fernandez, Fidel Castro's dissident daughter,...

Alina Fernandez, Fidel Castro's dissident daughter, accompanied by Sergio D'Elia, Secretary of HOC, met with vice-premier Gianfranco Fini. Fernandez was in Italy as part of a European tour with the purpose of sensitising the international community regarding the situation on the island oppressed by a dictatorship, and to ask Italy, the country which will preside over Europe for the next six months, to "put diplomatic pressure" on Fidel Castro.
"I believe Europe has the duty to intervene in defence of people's dignity. Human rights' violations have reached intolerable levels in Cuba," Fini said.
Fernandez also participated in a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies' Human Rights Committee and met with the President of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Gustavo Selva.
The hearing, summoned by the President of the Committee Gennaro Malgeri, had the purpose of finding out in more detail Cuba's human rights situation, with particular reference to the death penalty.
"Our country should do something both to stop the arrests of those guilty only of having expressed their ideas and also to arrive at a moratorium on the death penalty which would include Cuba," he added.