Sickbed Attack on Political Prisoner Normando Hernández in Havana

By Cuban Democratic Directorate
Havana. April 14, 2008. Directorio Democrático Cubano.
Normando Hernández González, a young political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, was the victim of an attack committed with the complicity of State Security officers at Carlos J. Finlay military hospital. Hernández González has been hospitalized for seven months due to his serious medical conditions. The attack occured on Tuesday afternoon, April 14,2008.

According to a telephone statement by Yaraí Reyes Marín, Hernández González’s wife, a common prisoner sentenced for having murdered a police officer attempted to strangle the political prisoner in the presence of four guards. A third prisoner unsuccessfully attempted to defend Hernandez Gonzalez. The guards who witnessed the event did not intervene, allowing the attack to take place which nearly rendered the young prisoner of conscience unconscious, and left his flesh marked with gouges.

According to Reyes Marín’s statement to Directorio, Hernández González “has gouges on his neck and left shoulder… [The guards] waited until he was partially suffocated, and after that, when they saw that the other prisoner was unable to remove the attacker from Normando, that was when they went in to remove him.”

The attacker, named Mario, did not exhibit any symptoms of illness, and had been admitted to the hospital 20 days before the attack took place, during which time he had persistently verbally harassed the political prisoner.