{"id":29116,"date":"2019-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/religious-freedom-defender-released-4494\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:55:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:55:57","slug":"religious-freedom-defender-released-4494","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/religious-freedom-defender-released-4494\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious freedom defender released"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ricardo Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre, a prominent religious freedom defender in Cuba, has been released after being arbitrarily detained incommunicado for 29 hours. State security agents warned him however that he will still likely face criminal charges.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre presented himself at the Camag\u00fcey police station at 1pm on Tuesday 12 November<\/a> in response to a verbal police summons. He was not seen or heard from until his release at 6.00pm on Wednesday 13 November. While he was detained, an officer told Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre\u2019s wife and colleagues that he was under investigation and would be held incommunicado for four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was held in a windowless cell, which he described to CSW as \u201ctoo small and uncomfortable for someone of my size\u2026 I didn\u2019t know if it was day or night because I could not see outside, there was just a very bright light which was left on all the time. While I was there they took away my glasses which gave me a severe headache because I need to use them all the time and can\u2019t see without them.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre also told CSW how he was repeatedly taken back and forth between his intensely hot cell and an extremely cold and air-conditioned interrogation room. During the interrogations he was repeatedly threatened by various officials, including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre has documented over 60 violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) this year and was previously detained and held without charge<\/a> in July. He was held incommunicado for four days and released after ten days. Shortly after this experience he expressed concern to CSW that the Cuban government would attempt to fabricate a criminal case against him, concerns that seemed to be confirmed when many of his neighbours and colleagues reported that they had been approached by Cuban State Security officers asking questions about the activist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have maintained my position and I maintain it today,\u201d<\/i><\/b>Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre added. \u201cThey can do what they like with me but I won\u2019t stop defending Cuban citizens\u2019 rights to freedom of religion or belief.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Head of Advocacy Anna-Lee Stangl said: \u201cWhile we welcome the release of Ricardo Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre, he should never have been detained in the first place. The Cuban authorities must not criminalise the peaceful defence of human rights, and allow Mr Fern\u00e1ndez Izaguirre to carry on with his work defending freedom of religion or belief for all without further interference or obstruction. We urge the international community to continue to closely monitor his case and those of other human rights defenders as they carry out their courageous but risky work.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ricardo Fernndez Izaguirre, a prominent religious freedom defender in Cuba, has been released after being arbitrarily detained incommunicado for 29 hours.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43253,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-29116","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39700,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29116\/revisions\/39700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29116"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}