Originally posted by Wikinews. Wikinews content appears under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license except where specified. As these articles are static snapshots of news items that may be later updated, they may not represent the latest or final revision of that article, and posted information may be only preliminary. Cuba releases leading dissident from prison ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 13, 2011 Original URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Cuba_releases_leading_dissident_from_prison The Cuban government released one of the country's leading dissidents, Óscar Elías Biscet. from prison on Friday, under an agreement attained through talks supported by Spain and reached last July between Cuba's president Raul Castro and Cuba's Catholic Church to free 52 political prisoners. Biscet, 49, was sentenced to a 25-year prison term in 2003 for "acts against the sovereignty and independence of the national territory". The original deadline for the release was November 7, and the 40 who were released by that date agreed to exile in Spain. Biscet and 11 others refused to leave Cuba and were not freed by the deadline. Biscet stated, "I’ve always lived in Cuba and I’m from Cuba. I haven’t done anything bad to anyone. I’ve always given love, a lot of love, and for giving love they came down hard on me, especially the government". A follower of the peacefully resistant philosophies of and , Biscet's nonviolent fight for human rights and his persistent opposition to the Cuban government have won him worldwide prominence. He has worked to oppose and the and campaigned to free Cuban political prisoners. In 2007 bestowed upon him the , American's highest civilian honor, in recognition of his work. Biscet was escorted by security agents to his home in . He told reports gathered there, "It goes without saying that I will continue in the opposition because even in jail I did not give up my questioning attitude toward this government and the abuses it commits." == Sources == * http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/03/201131262527912374.html * http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12721318 * http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/11/2111044/cuban-dissident-oscar-biscet-is.html * http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=389380&CategoryId=14510 .