Rights groups condemns Cuba crackdown

MIAMI, March 19 (UPI) -- Human rights groups are calling on Cuba to release a number of dissidents imprisoned since a crackdown on the island's opposition five years ago.

"It is time for Cuba to release these prisoners immediately and without conditions," said Matt Easton from Human Rights First, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Easton was referring to the 75 dissidents who were arrested in 2003, 55 of whom remain in prison.

Rights groups regularly condemn the communist island for its hard-line stance on critics of the government.