Professor Pedro Albert on hunger strike after arbitrary arrest by State Security

Cuban professor Pedro Albert Sánchez declared a hunger strike after being detained by State Security in the context of the visit of the rapporteur for Human Rights of the European Union, Eamon Gilmore.

The political prisoner and cancer patient was arrested on November 22 and is currentlyfound isolated and on strike of hunger in the Vivac de Calabazar detention center, in Havana, several activists from the island have denounced, who demand the regime's immediate release.

State Security detained Albert Sánchez hours before Gilmore's arrival in Havana, to whom the professor had written a letter describing the violations of thehuman rights in Cuba and begging him to visit the regime's political prisoners during his visit to the Island.

The professor was detained on November 22 when he tried to arrive at the headquarters of the European Union to request an interview with Gilmore and deliver the letter to him along with Dr. Fernando Vázquez Pérez, who was also kept in custody for several hours that day.

In a video filmed before his arrest and replicated by activist Carolina Barrera, the professor says that he is a political prisoner of July 11,sentenced to five years in prison with internment that were changed last January to House Prison after four hunger strikes.

Pedro Albert has been arrested on several occasions despite being a cancer patient. In November 2021, before a march called by the Archipiélago platform, he was the victim of arbitrary detention, and in October 2022 he was brought to trial for alleged crimes of public disorder, attack, resistance and contempt.

In January he was sentenced to five years of limitation of freedom by the Popular Municipal Court of Diez de Octubre for his participation along with other protesters in the protests of July 11, 2021.

Gilmore's visit to Cuba to participate in the EU-Cuba dialogue on Human Rights mobilized Cuban civil society, which has increased its complaints in recent days to demand that the official intercede for the release of the political prisoners and Pedro Albert.

However, the regime has responded with repression. This Saturday the independent portal 14yMedio reported that 12 Ladies in White were detained in the context of the rapporteur's visit to the island.