Max Hamata
26 February 2003
GOVERNMENT has quietly released a Cuban national following an appeal by human rights group Amnesty International not to deport him to Cuba.
Pedro Osvaldo Ortegas Suarez and his wife, Jeny Megalis Hernandez Heredia, were detained in Namibia on November 8 on suspicion that they were illegal immigrants.
Amnesty said it was concerned that the couple's safety "may be at risk" should they be deported to Cuba.
The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), which has been trying to secure political asylum for the couple, said the husband was released last week.
His wife, who was released on bail of N$2 000, has disappeared.
"We suspect that she might have fled back to Angola," said NSHR National Director Phil ya Nangoloh.
"Suarez was released last week on condition that he leaves the country within seven days," said Ya Nangoloh.
Suarez is now trying to get a visa to go to Botswana.
"I can confirm that we are reviewing Suarez's visa application," said Lesedi Pema, an official from the Botswana mission in Windhoek.
Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Niilo Taapopi yesterday confirmed that Suarez has been released and was given seven days to leave the country.
"We did not charge him for being an illegal immigrant but we decided to let him go on condition that he leaves the country," he said.
He said the immigration tribunal would have decided that he should be deported.
Ya Nangoloh said the NSHR's major concern was that Government would deport him back to Cuba where he could be "locked up, tortured and be subjected to disappearance without trace".
"We are glad that the Government on its own realised that there is no respect for human rights in Cuba therefore there was no point in sending a person" to a place where he might be persecuted, claimed Ya Nangoloh.
The couple lived in Angola for two years before moving to Windhoek.
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