Castro Finally Releases Journalist From Prison

After six years of beatings and brutal treatment, a courageous Cuban journalist has finally been released from prison, where he had been confined for the crime of insulting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Cuban journalist Bernardo Arevalo Padron founded the outlawed independent press agency Linea Sur Pres in 1996 and reported on human rights violations in Castro's Cuba, according to the BBC. In 1997 he was given a six-year sentence for having insulted Castro and, despite protests from all over the world that he be granted an early release, was forced to serve the full term.

BBC reports that Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, say Padron was beaten during his detention and that he deteriorated physically and psychologically. His friends, however, say that since his release he has been in good health and is with his family.

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