By REUTERS
 
HAVANA, May 18 - Three Cuban dissidents were sentenced to prison on Tuesday in the third trial of opponents of this country's Communist government in a month, a human rights group said.

Orlando Zapata, Raúl Arencibia and Virgilio Marante were convicted of contempt for authority, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, said Elizardo Sánchez, president of the advocacy group Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana.

"They were sentenced to three years in jail," Mr. Sánchez said.

The men were arrested on Dec. 6, 2002, when they gathered to study the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a house in a Havana suburb.

A leading dissident, Óscar Elías Biscet, was arrested in the same incident and sentenced to 25 years in prison for acts against Cuban sovereignty in a summary trial in April 2003.

Only relatives were allowed to attend the trial on Tuesday at a municipal court. The police cordoned off the block to keep the public and reporters away.

President Fidel Castro ordered a crackdown on dissent in March 2003 that has resulted in the jailing of 75 opponents for up to 28 years.

The government said they were traitors on Washington's payroll and charged them with plotting to overthrow the government.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission criticized the arrests in a resolution on April 15. Last week, the European Union condemned the "disproportionate severity" of sentences being given to dissidents.