THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA -- One of the 75 dissidents arrested in Cuba's crackdown on the opposition last year said Thursday he was released temporarily from prison for medical reasons.

Julio Antonio Valdez Guevara, 52, who suffers from hypertension and kidney dysfunction, said authorities released him Wednesday night from a prison ward at a hospital on Havana's outskirts.

"I'm really happy," Valdez told international journalists as he arrived at a kidney treatment center in Havana Thursday afternoon.

His wife, Cruz Delia Aguilar, said he was to undergo a kidney transplant in the coming days.

Valdez was among 75 dissidents rounded up in a March 2003 crackdown on the opposition. In one-day trials the following month, they were all sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years.

Valdez, who operated an independent library in the eastern city of Manzanillo, received a 20-year sentence.

The crackdown was condemned by governments and rights groups around the world and was mentioned by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva on Thursday when it voted narrowly to criticize Cuba for its rights record.