E/CN.4/2000/9 page 69 and medical treatment, negative religious counselling, threats, provocation and beatings, of persons claiming the status of political prisoners. 335. With regard to political prisoners or prisoners of conscience, many expressions of concern have been received about the measures allegedly used against human rights defenders and journalists. According to the information provided, they are the object of special harassment by the authorities by means of arbitrary detention, threats, beatings and the imposition of severe penalties, especially on charges of "mutiny against the State" and "disrespect for the person of the Cuban President, Fidel Castro". 336. By the same letter, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the following cases to the Government. 337. Milagros Cruz Cano, a blind crusader for human rights, has allegedly been detained since 4 December 1998 under sub-human conditions in the psychiatric hospital of Havana. She was reportedly taken to the above-mentioned hospital after being brutally beaten by police officers at the La Maria Luisa station in retaliation for her shouting of pro-liberty slogans during a peaceful demonstration on 27 November that turned violent when security forces fell upon participants. After numerous attempts her mother succeeded in speaking with her and found evidence that her daughter had been subjected to ill-treatment. She also spoke with two physicians, one of whom reportedly said, "She is not in ill health but I can't let her go because this is a case referred by a police station, where the young lady is accused of creating a public scandal". 338. Lázaro Constantín Durán, domiciled at Virtudes y Neptuno, Havana Vieja, is said to have been beaten on 10 December 1998 by five unidentified individuals during the commemoration in Buttari Park of the signature of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On the morning of the same day, his mother's house was allegedly surrounded by members of State security forces, a situation that prevailed until 11.45 p.m., after Mr. Lázaro Guzmán had already been beaten. Also on 10 December, all persons trying to reach the house of Mr. Lázaro Durán's mother were intercepted. A savage beating was inflicted by State security agents on the activist Ernesto Gala García in the vicinity of Buttari Park, where he was going to participate in the same commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 339. Pablo Fidel Cabrera Bishop was allegedly detained on 29 November 1998 and beaten by a police officer. He was reportedly kept in the cells of the National Revolutionary Police of Calabazar, Boyeros, in terribly overcrowded conditions. On 4 December 1998 he is said to have been sentenced by the court at Santiago de las Vegas to two years' assignment to residence for the offence of vagrancy. 340. Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta was reportedly beaten by prison staff on 10 October 1998, Cuban independence day, when he shouted "Down with Castro" and "Down with the Castro dictatorship". He is reportedly being kept in the provincial prison of Guantánamo in solitary confinement and under harsh living conditions. Because of the beating he received he allegedly has an operable thoracic wound. Consideration was being given to transferring him to a highsecurity prison at Kilometre 8 in Camagüey province, although he resides in the Guantánamo region. 341. Virgen Milagros Grillot was reportedly subjected to ill-treatment on 27 August 1998 by two unidentified individuals in civilian dress. They