Religion

Havana –  Cuba's Catholic hierarchy said Tuesday that it had not received any notification from the Communist government that the church-mediated process of releasing political prisoners is over.

The Archdiocese of Havana was responding to last week's announcement by the Spanish Foreign Ministry in which it said that the prisoner-release process was finished.

"With respect to that, we state that the Catholic Church in Cuba has not received - from the Cuban government - any notification regarding the suspension of the said process," said the Archdiocese in a succinct announcement.

The Spanish government said after a group of 37 former Cuban political prisoners and about 200 of their family members arrived in Madrid that the prisoner-release process begun last year was over.

Of the 115 Cuban dissidents who have left jail in the last nine months, only 12 - all from the "Group of 75" jailed in March 2003 - remain in Cuba, having refused exile to Spain.

The Cuban government promised last year to release all 52 of the Group of 75 members then still behind bars within the framework of an unexpected dialogue initiated with the Catholic Church and supported by the Spanish government.

Cuban authorities later expanded the releases to other prisoners convicted of crimes against state security, although the internal opposition on the Communist-ruled island does not recognize many of them as active dissidents.

Cuba has released every detainee recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.