• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 16 / 2010

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(AFP) – 20 hours ago. HAVANA — A new group of six Cuban political prisoners is ready to be released and sent to Spain having undergone medical tests and filled out the necessary paperwork, friends and family said Sunday.

Relatives of the dissidents planning to travel to Spain with them said the prisoners had received medical examinations and their travel clothes on Saturday.

"We are ready at any moment to travel, with God's help," Catalina Cano, the aunt of the dissidents who plans to travel with him, told AFP.

In a deal between the Catholic Church and Havana that was brokered by Spain, Cuba agreed to free 52 of 75 dissidents sentenced in 2003 to prison terms of up to 28 years.

The agreement, which saw a first main group of 20 prisoners released in July, followed talks between Cardinal Jaime Ortega,
the Archbishop of Havana, and President Raul Castro in May.

Those set to be released are Marcelo Cano, 45, a medical doctor; poet Regis Iglesias, 40; journalists Juan Carlos Herrera, 44; Fabio Prieto, 47; and Juan Fernandez, 61; and Efren Fernandez, 57.


Source: www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jpFuz-NqbhH58vRbakBU7NMB9gtA