HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- A blind lawyer and nine other opposition activists were put on trial in Cuba Monday in the first prosecution of government opponents since last year's jailing of 75 dissidents.

Blind human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva and the other nine opponents of Cuban President Fidel Castro were charged with disrespect for authority and public disorder, according to the Cuban Human Rights Commission

Only relatives were allowed into the courtroom for the trial, which took place in the central town of Ciego de Avila.

"They face sentences of up to six years," said veteran rights activist, Elizardo Sanchez, head of the commission.

All ten were arrested March 4, 2002, when they tried to visit an independent journalist, who had allegedly been beaten by police at a Ciego de Avila hospital. They have been jailed without charges since then.

Last year 75 dissidents, accused of conspiring with the United States to overthrow Castro, were sentenced to terms of up to 28 years in one-day trials.

"The trial of a blind lawyer, along with nine other dissidents, continues the repressive trend that was so glaringly evident last year in Cuba," the Washington-based organization Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Copyright 2004 Reuters.