CUBA: SENTENCES COMMUTED BUT TREATMENT STILL HARSH

prisoners in Cuba who were facing the death penalty but had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment or 30 years in jail are still being treated like death row inmates, a dissident organisation complained. "The announcement was made five months ago, but they're still being meted out the same punishment," Elizardo Sánchez told IPS after the launch of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN)'s six-monthly report on human rights. Sánchez, the leader of the CCDHRN, said his statement was based on the testimony of family members and even some inmates who telephoned the organisation from jail. The prison regime is austere, but the prisoners are allowed visits every four months, he acknowledged. Some, however, have been in isolation for more than 10 years. The government's handling of the death penalty issue remains "very conservative," and there are still dozens of crimes to which capital punishment still applies. Since the decision to impose a moratorium on capital punishment, no death sentences have been handed down by the courts and no new executions have been carried out.