BY MYRON STRUCK
 States News Service

 WASHINGTON -- In a letter to the State Department, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
 R-Miami, has asked for help in seeking the release from Cuban prison of a
 physician serving a three-year sentence for calling attention to rights issues.

 Joining Ros-Lehtinen in the effort to free Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet are Rep. Lincoln
 Díaz-Balart, R-Miami; the Cuban American National Foundation; the American
 Association for the Advancement of Science Human Rights Action Network; and
 Physicians for Human Rights.

 Ros-Lehtinen's letter to the State Department went to Harold Hongju Koh,
 assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor. A spokesman for Koh
 said the department does not take a position on individual cases.

 Biscet, who founded the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba in 1997,
 was arrested Nov. 3, last year. Charged and convicted of ``insulting his
 motherland,'' Biscet has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement,
 Ros-Lehtinen said.

 The Cuban American National Foundation released a statement Thursday from
 Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejón, saying she was appreciative of U.S. support.