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CUBA COMMUTES LONE REMAINING DEATH SENTENCE
December 28, 2010: Cuba's Supreme Tribunal commuted the death sentence of an anti-Castro activist who was the last death row inmate on the island, a rights group said.
The tribunal was ruling on the appeal of Humberto Eladio Real, who had been convicted in the 1990s on murder and "acts against state security."
"The trial ended at 2:30 pm (1930 GMT) and the sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison," Elizardo Sanchez, spokesman for the opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN), told AFP.
Real, 40, was part of a team of seven fighters belonging to the Florida-based National Unity Democratic Party (PUND) who infiltrated Cuba in 1994 to set up a guerrilla base in the Escambray mountains, according to the government-run Cubadebate website.
All seven were quickly captured including Real, who was arrested on October 15, 1994 "after assassinating Arcelio Rodriguez Garcia and stealing his car," Cubadebate said.
Two years later, he was sentenced to death for "acts against state security, assassination, and shooting a firearm against a determined person," the website said. (Sources: Afp, 28/12/2010)
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