US president honors Cuban dissident

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush awarded his top honor to the Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet here on Monday, handing the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the political prisoner's family.

"To the Cuban dictatorship, Dr. Biscet is a 'dangerous man.' He is dangerous in the same way that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi were dangerous," Bush said at the White House award ceremony.

"He is a man of peace, a man of truth, and a man of faith," he said, before handing the medal -- the highest honor a US president can grant a civilian -- to Biscet's son, Yan Valdes.

Biscet, a medical doctor, founded a human rights group and was given a 25-year jail sentence in 1999 by the Communist regime of Fidel Castro for his activities. Bush called Biscet "a...