By Vanessa Bauzá
HAVANA BUREAU

HAVANA · On his first day at home after more than two years in prison, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, a blind attorney and one of the leaders of Cuba's rural opposition movement, called his long-awaited trial a "circus" and said he would not renounce his defense of human rights.

Gonzalez Leiva arrived at his home in the central city of Ciego de Avila at around midnight on Tuesday morning after a daylong trial in which he was sentenced to four years of "limited freedom," a status similar to probation, but less restrictive than house arrest, he said.

Before he was dropped off at home, a prison official warned him not to try to rekindle his activism and criticism of the government of President Fidel Castro.

"The officer told me I had to be calm," said Gonzalez Leiva, 39, who used to head the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights. "If I started the human rights activities which they considered a violation of my `limited freedom' status, I would be returned to prison. ... The sword of Damocles hangs over me.

"I can never renounce the Christian love for human beings and the defense of rights ... which don't depend on any state or political power."

Gonzalez Leiva and nine other dissidents were arrested on March 4, 2002, after staging a protest at the Antonio Luaces Iraola provincial hospital, about 250 miles east of Havana, where independent journalist Jesus Alvarez Castillo was being treated for injuries from a confrontation with police. After shouting "Down with Fidel!" and refusing to leave the hospital, they were carried out by force, according to the criminal indictment. They were charged with disorderly conduct, disrespect for authority, disobedience and resisting arrest. Most had been held since then in pretrial detention in several eastern Cuban cities.

Gonzalez Leiva, who studied law by having his wife and relatives read his course books into a tape recorder, was denied a request to act as his own attorney, he said. He did not take the stand, saying it was useless to speak before a biased judge. Although he said his court-appointed lawyer offered a good defense, he described Monday's trial as the "fight of a lion against a monkey, and the monkey is tied up."

In a surprise revelation reminiscent of the April 2003 trials of 75 dissidents, one of the defendants, Lester Tellez Castro, told the court that he had been recruited as a government agent two years ago, Gonzalez Leiva said. Tellez Castro, a former independent journalist, said he had used the code name "Agent Ignacio" and was asked to help put Gonzalez Leiva in prison. Tellez Castro was removed from the courtroom after his testimony, but not before fingering his former colleague, Alvarez Castillo, as another state security plant.

During the dissident trials last spring, the Cuban government blew the covers of a dozen security agents who testified against their former colleagues in court, thereby sowing uncertainty and distrust among those who had not been imprisoned.

According to Gonzalez Leiva, the other defendants, who will credited with time served, received the following sentences:

Tellez Castro, Enrique García Morejón and Antonio Marcelino García Morejón, three years and six months in prison; Virgilio Mantilla Arango, four years in prison; Carlos Brisuela Yera, three years in prison; Lazaro Iglesias Estrada, three years in prison; and Delio Laureano Requejo Rodriguez, two years and six months in "limited freedom" at home. Ana Pelaez Garcia and Odalmis Hernandez Marquez were sentenced to time served.

Gonzalez Leiva, who depends for his livelihood on cash transfers from friends in the United States, said he now planned to turn his attentions to his colleagues who are still behind bars.

"I'm going to try to help my friends in prison in everything I can, material and spiritual," he said.

Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com.

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