Rolando Jiménez Posada,  36, a lawyer and Director of the Centro Democrático Pinero de Derechos Humanos, Pinos Democratic Human Rights Centre, in Isla de Pinos, which was created in July 2002, was sentenced after secret trial to 12 years in prison for painting graffiti and distributing pamphlets with anti-government message.

Rolando Jiménez Posada, who has been in detention since March 2003, was reportedly not allowed to defend himself in court. He was tried over the weekend without a defense attorney or family members present, and convicted of disrespect for authority and revealing state secrets, said Elizardo Sanchez, a spokesman for the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

Sanchez said Jimenez Posada was brought to Havana for the trial from Isla de la Juventud south of Cuba's main island, where he has been jailed since his arrest in early 2003.

It is not clear whether the time Mr Posada has already spent in jail on the Isle of Youth, off Cuba's southern coast, would count towards the 12-year sentence.

In January 2002 , Rolando Jiménez Posada was dismissed from his job as legal adviser of a veterinary medicine company, reportedly due to his problems with state security.

He has been detained and threatened numerous times over the past few years. For example, according to reports, on 10 December 2001, while taking part in a peaceful celebration to commemorate the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he and several others were reportedly beaten and pushed into police vehicles and then dumped in remote areas of Isla de la Juventud. On 12 June 2002, after taking part in a peaceful march calling for the release of political prisoners, he was temporarily detained and threatened with imprisonment if he continued carrying out opposition activities. On 31 July 2002 he was said to have been threatened at his home in Nueva Gerona, capital of Isla de la Juventud, after handing out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On 25 August 2002 he was again reportedly threatened at his home by State Security who told him that he would be imprisoned if he continued carrying out public activities in support of political prisoners.

Most recently, he was detained on 25 April 2003 when his home was searched by the Department of State Security and police officers. They reportedly confiscated printed materials, including a book containing addresses of anti-Castro exile groups. He was initially said to be held at the Ministry of the Interior headquarters in Nueva Gerona. An official there reportedly told his wife and mother of their four year old son that if she abandoned her husband, she would get economic help and a good job.

He is currently imprisoned in Guayabo Prison, Isla de la Juventud.

Copyright © 2006 by IDHAE- European Bar Human Rights Institute.