Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer freed to live in exile in US | Cuba
Prominent Cuban dissident José Daniel Ferrer has been released from prison and put on a plane to the United States, where he will live in exile with his family, the communist country’s foreign ministry said.
Ferrer, who has been repeatedly imprisoned as the long-term leader of the island’s pro-democracy movement, announced this month that he had chosen to go into exile after facing “torture” and “humiliation” behind bars.
The 55-year-old man said in a letter from prison that “the dictatorship’s cruelty towards me knows no bounds” since he was re-imprisoned in April after being briefly released under a deal with former US president Joe Biden.
He cited “beatings, torture, humiliation, threats and extreme conditions” in prison; these included “the theft of food and hygiene products ordered by the regime’s stooges.”
Ferrer said he decided to leave because of threats that his wife would also be imprisoned and his young son would be sent to an institution for juvenile delinquents.
In a statement made by the foreign ministry in Havana, it was stated that Ferrer and his family members left the country for the United States on Monday after “the official request of the country’s government and the open acceptance of the opponents”.
