About Óscar Elías Biscet
Óscar Elías Biscet González (born July 20, 1961 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban physician and an advocate for human rights and democratic freedoms in Cuba. He is also the founder of the Lawton Foundation. Biscet was given a 25-year prison sentence in Cuba for allegedly committing crimes against the sovereignty and the integrity of the Cuban territory. Despite appeals from the United Nations, foreign governments, and international human rights organizations, the Cuban Government refused to release Biscet until March 11, 2011. In recognition of his "advocacy efforts for human rights and democracy" in Cuba, Biscet was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2007. == Beginnings == Biscet received a degree in medicine in 1985; the following year he initiated protests which led to his immediate suspension. Starting in 1988, Biscet revealed his political tension with the communist regime through speech. The Cuban government in 1994 officially opened a case file on Biscet, labeling him a counter-revolutionary and "dangerous". In 1997, Biscet founded the Lawton Foundation. == Political and philosophical background == Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
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