In a press release [in Spanish] just published a few minutes ago (19:20 GMT), the Archdiocese of La Habana has announced that 52 political prisoners will be released. Five of the prisoners will be released immediately, and "will depart for Spain with their relatives shortly." The other 47 will be released during the next three to four months, and "will be able to leave the country."

The note states that this is the result of the process initiated on May 19th with the dialog between the Church and the Cuban government, and the requests of the relatives of the political prisoners. This has not yet been independently verified with any of the relatives of the prisoners.

No further details, like the name of the first five prisoners of conscience, were available.

We will continue to monitor the situation, and will update accordingly.