WORKER FROM US INTERESTS IN HAVAN TRIES TO ENTER A COURT FOR HEARING ON DISSIDENTS, 2003-04-03...

Nicolas Giacube (R), a worker at the U.S. Interests office in Havana, shows his identification to try and enter a court April 3, 2003. Communist Cuba barred diplomats and foreign journalists from three Havana couthouses on Thursday, where the first of 78 dissidents, recently rounded up by authorities, were put on trial for collaborating with the United States. Prosecutors are seeking life sentences for 12 of the dissidents and 10 to 30 year prison terms for the remainder. Local human rights activists characterized the repression as the worst they had witnessed on the Cariibean island, where political organizations opposed to President Fidel Castro are illigal, and their members harrased and often imprisoned for a few weeks to a few years. REUTERS/Rafael Perez RP/GN