WATERLOO, Ontario -- Cecilio Ismael Sambra Haber, a 49-year-old prize-winning author released last week after five years as a political prisoner in Cuba, has not yet adjusted to freedom.

His body is bent and his eyes are shadowed with suspicion.

Appearing shaken during an interview Tuesday at the temporary housing provided for him by Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, he denied the charge of ``rebellion by peaceful means'' on which he was convicted in 1992.

``The only crime I have committed is that I expressed myself,'' he said quietly, adding, ``in Cuba the free expression of ideas is already a crime.''

Sambra arrived in Canada on Sunday with his wife and two young children after being released halfway through a 10-year sentence for distributing pamphlets that read ``No to Castro -- vote for freedom'' during Cuba's 1992 legislative election.

His 26-year-old son Guillermo, who was sentenced with his father, is still held in the Guama prison where he is serving an eight-year sentence.

Ismael Sambra's release was engineered in part by PEN Canada, a watchdog group monitoring human rights abuses of writers that spearheaded a yearlong campaign for Sambra's freedom.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy also pleaded Sambra's case to Cuban President Fidel Castro while on a state visit to Cuba in January. Axworthy, who obtained a position for Sambra as writer-in-exile at the university, said Sambra's release demonstrates that Canada's policy of engagement with Cuba is working.

Same prison as Castro

Sambra spent most of his five years behind bars in the notorious Boniato Prison in Santiago de Cuba, which is where Castro was imprisoned after an abortive attack on an army barracks in 1953.

An October 1995 report from Human Rights Watch/Americas said food was scarce in Boniato Prison, with breakfast consisting of lemonade, while small portions of broth with a little white rice were provided for lunch and dinner.

To protest conditions in the prison, Sambra staged six hunger strikes, one of which lasted 40 days. Then he was struck down by a heart attack and was transferred to another prison. Undeterred, Sambra launched a defiant six-day hunger strike on his return from the hospital.

Sambra has not always opposed Castro. In his younger days he was involved in government-endorsed television programs and literary movements, and won at least five major prizes for his poetry, short stories and children's books.

But he said he was eventually overwhelmed by an awareness of human rights abuses.

``When you become aware that there are violations all around you . . . you cannot be indifferent,'' he said.

`A revolutionary'

Sambra referred to himself as ``a revolutionary'' and said, ``What is happening in Cuba at this moment is not revolutionary, it is regression. It is something that has stagnated.

``They tell us that we are the counterrevolutionaries. It is they who are the counterrevolutionaries. They have halted what could be and should be progress.''

According to Sambra, the great majority of Cubans are opposed to communism, but Castro's tight control over the nation precludes change. His description of endless levels of policing and surveillance make the island sound like one of the prisons in which he spent the last five years.

Wearing an oversize purple Laurier University sweat shirt, Sambra spoke passionately about his plans for the future.

``I want to do everything that is possible to bring freedom for my country and I want to do it in a peaceful way,'' he said. ``As long as I have energy and strength I will continue to testify.''

But for all his determination, Sambra has not been left unscathed by his experiences.

``The pain of being in prison leaves a mark on your soul that can never be erased. So said Jose Marti,'' Sambra said, referring to the Cuban independence hero.

``I can confirm this.''

Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald