Rights groups say Cuban dissident remains in custody after prison term

Human rights groups said Thursday that Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara remains in custody even though he finished serving a five-year prison term a week earlier.

Otero Alcantara, who Amnesty International has designated a prisoner of conscience, was sentenced in 2022 to five years in prison for insulting national symbols, contempt and disturbing public order. He was detained in July 2021 while leaving his home in Havana to join unprecedented mass protests across Cuba.

On July 7, two days before the end of his term, he was transferred from a prison to a state security force facility, where he spoke by telephone with Miami-based activist Anamely Ramos. The Cuban government has not issued an official statement about him, according to the source.

Laritza Diversent, a lawyer who runs the Miami-based NGO Cubalex, told AFP that Otero Alcantara’s continued detention is an illegal denial of freedom and alleged that forced disappearance is being committed because state agents are holding him.

Cubalex said Cuban authorities apparently want to keep Otero Alcantara isolated while a request for him to live in exile in the United States is processed.

Otero Alcantara is one of the most visible faces of the Cuban opposition and has led a movement of artists and intellectuals seeking greater freedom of expression. The Cuban government has accused him of acting on behalf of the United States to destabilise Cuba.