United Press International - February 26, 2000 03:45
HAVANA, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A leading Cuban dissident has been sentenced to three years in prison by a Cuban court for crimes including turning the flag upside down, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports Saturday. The dissident, Oscar Elias Biscet, was also convicted for public disorder and
inciting crime. The three-judge gave 38-year-old Biscet a year for each of the crimes, to run consecutively, the BBC said.
Biscet was arrested last November for turning the Cuban flag upside down at a rally. He left the courtroom smiling and flashed a victory sign to his family, the BBC said.
Cuban President Fidel Castro condemned Biscet. He called him a counter-revolutionary acting on the instructions of the U.S. government, according to the BBC.
"There is a rather provocative gentleman and, in my opinion, a bit disturbed, frankly, for the things he does, for the problems he causes, for the disputes he has with his own people," the BBC quoted Castro as saying.
Biscet runs a local rights organization called the Lawton Foundation. He is a longtime Castro opponent and has said that he represents peaceful opposition to Cuba's one-party socialist system, the BBC said. Biscet is the most significant figure to be jailed in Cuba since the "Group of Four"
in March 1999.
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