Adolfo Fernández Sainz
Encyclopedia
Juan Adolfo Fernández Saínz (born in 1947) is a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n journalist. Before his imprisonment, he was an independent journalist with the Patria news agency. Adolfo Fernández Sainz also contributed to foreign publications, particularly in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. He was correspondent of the Russian human rights news agency Prima
Prima (news agency)
Prima is a news agency in Moscow, Russia which distributes human rights-related news in both English and Russian. It had been in form of newspaper in Moscow since 1987 but was founded as an agency in February 2000....

 since 2001.

Adolfo Fernández Sainz was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison during the Black Spring
Black Spring (Cuba)
Black Spring refers to the 2003 crackdown on Cuban dissidents. The government imprisoned 75 dissidents, that included 29 journalists, as well as librarians, human rights activists, and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from...

 crackdown on dissidents in 2003. In prison, he has done hunger strikes. A 2003 hunger strike demanded decent food and medicine for seriously ill prisoners. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

 has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...

.

The Freedom for Fernandez International Committee has demanded Adolfo Fernández Sainz to be released.

Adolfo Fernández Sainz was the prisoner of the month of the English PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

in March 2006.

Fernández Sainz was released from prison on August 19th 2010. The next day he had to travel to Spain to live there. His release from prison was based on direct negotiation between deputies of the catholic church and the Spanish government.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK