Four participants in a prison revolt in Santiago, Cuba that left two military officers dead have been given sentences of 30 years to life, a human rights activist in Havana reported.
Army recruit Yoelvis Delgado Arvelo, who was working as a guard, and an inmate known only as Mursuli were given life sentences, said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an illegal but tolerated dissident group.
Army recruit Irán Cabrera León and another soldier who was not identified -- both also guards -- were sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment, Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald on Tuesday.
The sentences were imposed by an army tribunal in June but were disclosed only this week, Sánchez added. Cuban media have not reported the sentences.
The prison break allegedly took place Dec. 20, 2006, when three recruits on compulsory military service and one prison inmate tried to take over El Manguito Prison, 17 miles from Santiago.
Details are sketchy, but Cubans on the island have said that the armed recruits seized the sentry post at the prison's gate, cut off telephone lines and tried to flee with two prison inmates after a shootout in which two military officers were killed and one of the inmates was wounded. The slain men were Lt. Oliverio Orozco and 2nd Lt. José A. Tamayo, according to the sources.
The three recruits and the other inmate were believed to have been captured within 24 hours and taken to Boniatico Prison near Santiago.
Cuban authorities still have not revealed the fate of three other army recruits who on May 3 attempted to hijack a plane at José Martí International Airport in Havana, an incident in which an army lieutenant colonel was killed. Cuban authorities have said the would-be hijackers shot the officer to death.
The recruits are believed to be in a military prison.
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Four in Cuba jail break sentenced
