Cuba’s Supreme Court commuted the death sentence against a Cuban-American who was the last person remaining on death row in the island nation, according to a veteran human rights activist.

Cuba has promised the Catholic Church it will free 52 political prisoners, slashing the number it holds by nearly a third in what would be the communist-run island’s largest release of dissidents since Pope John Paul II visited in 1998.

Cuba says it respects all human rights, maintaining that the communist government answers to the people – not the other way around – and that state control of all labour unions, social organisations and the media strengthens individual freedoms.

More than 300 prisoners of conscience are still held in Cuba despite a slight drop in the net number of such inmates during the first half of 2006, a veteran rights group said today.

Demonstrating he retains firm control over Cuba after fracturing his knee and arm in a fall, President Fidel Castro told of conducting government business by mobile phone during an ambulance ride and later refusing general anaesthesia.