The global human rights movement Amnesty International has declared Cuban biologist Ariel Ruiz Urquiola a “prisoner of conscience.”arbitrarily sentenced to one year in prison under charges of contempt for comparing two forest rangers with the “rural guard” that terrorized the fields of Cuba during the Batista dictatorship.
The organization also called for his immediate release and defended his right to free expression.“Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, an environmental activist, is a prisoner of conscience and must be released unconditionally and immediately"says astatement issued this Monday.
Amnesty reiterated that Urquiola was imprisoned “solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” and asked the island's authoritiesthat he is not mistreated, intimidated or threatened; as well as having periodic access to his family and a lawyer of his choice.
In the note,addressed to President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Attorney General of the Republic, Darío Delgado Cura; The movement also calls for the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, including critical voices, to be guaranteed in Cuba and for all legislation that unduly limits these rights to be repealed.
Urquiola, a doctor in biological sciences and a researcher at the University of Havana, was arrested at the beginning of May on his farm in Viñales, after he scolded two forest rangers who questioned him about whether he had permits to build a fence, to prune and to possess a chainsaw
Ariel invited them to go with him to the house to see the permits and on the way he asked them to show him their identification; After one of them refused to do so, he referred to them as "rural guard", a term with a negative connotation that refers to the Batista dictatorship.
The rangers left the area and later in the night three police officers arrived with an arrest warrant and detained Ariel.
On the basis of court documents to which Amnesty International had access, Urquiola was accused of contempt of forest guards and sentenced on 8 May to one year in prison (the maximum penalty according to article 144.1 of the Penal Code) by the Court. Municipality of Viñales.
According to the organization, the biologist was first imprisoned in the Pinar del Río Provincial Prison and on June 11, the family was informed that he was transferred to the nearby Cayo Largo Correctional Facility.
Her sister, Omara Urquiola, informed Amnesty that prison officials threatened her not to contact the international press or they would suspend her visits.
According to complaints from his relatives to various independent media outlets, prior to his arrest Ruiz Urquiola had suffered persecution for reporting irregularities and acts of corruption in the organizations of the town where his farm, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is located.
In 2016 he was expelled from the Marine Research Center of the University of Havana for "counterrevolutionary attitudes" and last year the young man returned to the public arena after staging a hunger strike in front of the hospital where his sister was, who was denied a cancer drug.
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