The Revd Jesús Noel Carballeda, a 45-year-old Cuban pastor of an unregistered church in Havana, who had been imprisoned for six months for holding unauthorised religious services, was released on 31 August.
Carballeda was detained in February and imprisoned in the Valle Grande prison in San Antonio de los Baños outside Havana. He does not appear to have been tried, but while in prison was informed by officials that he would be held for six months as punishment for his continued unauthorised religious activity.
Carballeda was previously imprisoned in 2000 for four months after militant Communist neighbours filed legal complaints about church services he held. Carballeda’s church is linked to the Apostolic Movement, a fast-growing network of Protestant churches which the Cuban government has refused to register. The detention of Mr Carballeda is part of a larger crackdown on religious freedom in Cuba over the past few years.
