Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was released on Friday Oct. 5, after being detained for 30 hours, according to the Los Angeles Times and the blogger on her Twitter account.
Her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, and her friend Agustín López. had also been detained without an arrest warrant on Wednesday Oct. 4 while traveling from Havana to the city of Bayamo to cover the trial of Spanish politician Ángel Carromero. He is accused of reckless homicide of two Cuban dissidents in a car accident.
Sánchez, the most famous dissident Cuban blogger, said she planned on watching the trial since the official newspaper Granma had announced that the hearing would be public. The agents stripped the blogger of her cellphone and took her to a police station located in an apartment, Sánchez told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Then, according to news agency AFP, three female agents attempted to examine her, but the blogger refused to undress and undergo medical examination. Also, according to El Pais, she went on a hunger strike and refused to drink anything during the 30 hours of her detention.
Sánchez also demanded her right to a phone call, which she eventually was granted. The blogger declared herself on "word strike," as she was afraid police videos could be used in a smear campaign against her, El Pais reported.
Official Cuban press spread their version of the eventsaying that Sánchez had plans to boycott the trial, but the blogger denied it and explained that she was only going to attend a supposedly public trial as a listener.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
