Cuba frees second dissident in less than a week

HAVANA, Aug 15 (Reuters) Cuba has freed a dissident who was imprisoned in 2004 for painting quotes from national independence hero Jose Marti that were deemed critical of the communist government, a rights groups said today.

Lazaro Gonzalez Adan, 38, was released yesterday in his hometown of Camaguey in eastern Cuba after nearly completing a three-year sentence, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said.

Gonzalez was arrested in October 2004 after he painted a Cuban flag and quotes on liberty by Marti on his front wall and ignored police orders to erase the words. He was convicted of disrespect for the authorities and resisting arrest.

He was the second prisoner of conscience to be freed in less than a week, the commission said. On Friday Cuba released on parole its longest-serving political prisoner, Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez, 54. He spent more than 13 years behind bars.

The rights commission led by veteran activist Elizardo Sanchez said the number of political prisoners in Cuba has fallen to 244 from 286 at the start of 2007.

Sanchez said the dissidents freed this year were due to be released and the decline in numbers did not signal greater respect for human rights by Cuba since ailing leader Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raul a year ago.

''It is good news that the list gets shorter. But this is not the gesture that we have been waiting for,'' said a European diplomat in Havana. ''Until they free elderly, sick dissidents, it does not mean much.'' Cuba labels all dissidents ''counterrevolutionaries'' and ''mercenaries'' on the payroll of its ideological archenemy, the US government.

Reuters SZ VP0017