Angel Moya Acosta

Sentenced to 20 years in Ciudad de la Habana.

Angel Moya Acosta is the president of the Alternative Action Movement of Matanzas and a member of the Independent National Labor Federation. He was the signatory in March 2000 of the ''All United'' manifesto, which asked for changes in Cuban society and demanded the release of all political prisoners. He was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International following his arrest on December 10, 1999, for participating in a peaceful demonstration in Matanzas province to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although he was charged with "resistance,? public disorder, and "instigation to commit a crime,? he was freed on 7 August without ever being tried. In 2000 Angel Moya Acosta and Julia Cecilia Delgado were tried in separate proceedings for "disrespect" after being detained in the mass arrests. They were each sentenced to a year in prison. Angel Moya Acosta has also been banned for ten years from traveling to Havana, where his wife and children live. The speed with which they were charged, brought to trial, and sentenced has led to concern by Amnesty International that the proceedings might not have met international standards for fair trial.

In 2002, Gabriel Andreescu, director of the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, chair of the Center for the Rights of Man, and well-known Romanian intellectual once imprisoned by the Ceausescu dictatorship, presented the second annual Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award to Angel Moya Acosta. The ceremony took place on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002, at the University of Miami's Casa Bacardí, home of the Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Moya Acosta accepted the award via telephone from his home in Matanzas, Cuba. "I dedicate this award to those who have participated in the struggle to liberate Cuba, especially to the political prisoners - those who came before me and those who are in prison now," said Moya Acosta, adding that he was deeply moved and grateful. The Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award is sponsored by a coalition of Eastern European nongovernmental organizations and was created to recognize Cuban pro-democracy activists for excellence and courage in carrying out nonviolent civic resistance to the communist Cuban regime. In May 2001, the award was presented for the first time and was given to Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, blind 36-year-old president of the Cuban Foundation of Human Rights.

Angel Moya Acosta is 38 years of age, married, and has two children.