Cuba released a number of dissidents...

Cuba released a number of dissidents, including opposition figurehead Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who had been jailed in 2003 as part of a crackdown by the communist government, and Hands Off Cain board member Marcelo Lopez Banobre. 
Those released were among 75 dissidents jailed last year for between seven and 28 years after trials.
“This is good news,” declared Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio D’Elia. “It should be made known that their release from jail was not due to clemency measures or an amnesty but to their ill health.”
The dissidents were set free following a meeting on November 25 between Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Spain's ambassador to Cuba, Carlos Alonso Zaldivar.
The meeting marked the first official contact between Cuba and the European Union since June 2003, when EU officials imposed sanctions in protest at the crackdown and the execution of three men accused of trying to hijack a plane to the United States.
About 18 dissidents were brought from prisons across the country to prison clinics in Havana, according to Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the outlawed Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN).
Sanchez said the prisoners were released for health reasons.
He told AFP the release of three dissidents -- Espinosa Chepe, Margarito Broche and Marcelo Lopez -- had been confirmed.
There were doubts about three others -- Pedro Arguelles Moran, Pablo Pacheco and Jesus Mustafa Felipe -- who were earlier believed to have been freed at the same time.
"What is certain is that early this morning the three were in a minibus that left the prison. We noted the fact, we spoke with the families," he said. But Sanchez added that towards midday the three were reported to be at a prison in the eastern city of Ciego de Avila.
Espinosa Chepe, a 64-year-old economics writer, was jailed for 20 years after a speedy trial in April 2003.
Lopez, a member of the CCDHRN and part of the executive branch of Hands Off Cain, was put into Combinado del Este prison in Havana in March 2003, after being sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for ‘acts against state security’. “He had made public facts on the death penalty situation in Cuba,” said Sergio D’Elia, “for this reason ha was elected board member of our organisation.”
Broche was jailed for 25 years, Arguelles Moran was serving a 20-year term, Pacheco 20 years and Mustafa Felipe 25 years.
Broche is a rights activist, Arguelles Moran is head of an independent journalists' cooperative in Ciego de Avila, and Pacheco runs the Patria independent news agency. Felipe is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, which is also banned.
Lopez, 40, told reporters the EU should continue putting pressure on Havana.
"The Cuban government has the ability to free dozens of men and three days later to fill the prisons again," the former prisoner said.
Seven other dissidents among the 75 have been released in recent months, including the only woman in the group, economist Martha Beatriz Roque, and poet Manuel Vazquez Portal. Cuban authorities gave Vazquez Portal permission to leave the country last week.
But key opponents of President Fidel Castro, including the writer Raul Rivero and a number of journalists, remain in prison.
Chepe, 64, told AFP in a telephone interview that he had been among those released and that he believed the dissidents had been let go because of their bad health.
"There are people in prison who are very sick, and the situation cannot go on. International pressure is also strong, the media played a very important role, and we hope they will all be freed," he said. "The government really committed a very big error with us. We are completely peaceful and we want only the reconciliation of Cuban society," the economist said.