Opposition leaders among at least 10 targeted for penalty

Associated Press

HAVANA – Cuba is seeking life sentences for at least 10 of the dissidents jailed in the largest crackdown in years aimed at extinguishing all government opposition,
the island's best-known rights activist said Wednesday.

A total of 78 dissidents have been arrested since March 18, accused of working with U.S. diplomats to subvert Fidel Castro's government and being mercenaries in
the pay of Washington.

Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for 10 of them, including opposition political leaders Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes and Hector Palacios, journalist Ricardo
Gonzalez and dissident economist Marta Beatriz Roque, said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez.

The trials, expected to be quick, are scheduled to begin Thursday in at least four Havana courthouses, he said.

"This is a bad year for Cuba," said Mr. Sanchez, whose group regularly reports to international organizations about the island's human rights situation and political
prisoners.

The Cuban government has provided no information about the trials and it was unknown if international journalists would be granted access.

Authorities have accused the arrested of being traitors and mercenaries for the U.S. government.

In Washington, Robert Zimmerman, spokesman for the State Department's Latin America bureau, called the trials a travesty.

The Cubans "are being tried for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association," he said.

The roundup followed several years of relative government tolerance for the opposition. During that time, the opposition grew stronger, more organized and more
daring.