Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas not allowed to leave Cuba to receive EU prize

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Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas not allowed to leave Cuba to receive EU prize

2010-12-14 11:00:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- Guillermo Fariñas, the winner of this year's Sahkarov Prize for Freedom of Thought, will be unable to attend the award ceremony as has not been given permission to leave Cuba in order to receive the prize in person.

Despite the absence, the Sakharov ceremony will still take place as scheduled on Wednesday at around 1 p.m. local time in Strasbourg, France.

"On October 21, Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas was chosen as the winner of this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought," said European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek on Monday. "Regrettably, Mr. Fariñas is experiencing problems leaving the country, even though I made a personal appeal in a letter to the President of Cuba, Mr. Raul Castro. We expect that Lady Ashton will take due note of these problems and that she will take this into account in future relations with Cuba."

"If Guillermo Fariñas were to leave in the next few hours, he could still be here in time to receive his prize," Buzek added.

Guillermo Fariñas is the third Cuban to receive the €50,000 ($66,900) prize. Earlier, Cuban Oswaldo José Paya Sardiñas won the prize in 2002 and Ladies in White in 2005.

A doctor of psychology, journalist and former soldier, 48-year-old Guillermo Fariñas has denounced the Castro regime. He is the founder of "Cubanacán Press," an independent press agency aimed at raising awareness of the fate of political prisoners in Cuba.

Fariñas has spent years in confinement and has gone on hunger strike 23 times so far, a non-violent means of fighting oppression in Cuba. His efforts to secure free internet for all earned him a Reporters Without Borders Cyber-Freedom Prize in 2006.

"Guillermo Fariñas was ready to sacrifice and risk his own health and life as a means of pressure to achieve change in Cuba," Buzek said. "I hope to hand over the award to him in person, here in Strasbourg [..] which would be a tremendous moment for the European Parliament and for all Cuban prisoners of conscience."

In July, Fariñas nearly died after a five-month-long hunger strike which he began on February 24 following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a fellow political activist who passed away after 80 days of fasting. Fariñas ended the hunger strike after the Cuban government gave in to his plea and released 52 political prisoners.

Members of the European Parliament backing Fariñas' nomination said his "struggle has been, and still is, a shining example for all defenders of freedom and democracy."

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