HAVANA – Members of the Ladies in White, a group comprising relatives of the 75 peaceful dissidents jailed in Cuba’s “Black Spring” of 2003, were heckled Thursday by some 40 government supporters while protesting outside the Supreme Court to demand the release of all political prisoners.

More than 30 Ladies assembled at the entrance to the building and made their demands heard before being insulted minutes later by dozens of people, among them plain-clothes police.

After leaving the area, the dissidents were followed by a group of men and women who called them “sellouts” and “worms” while singing the Cuban national anthem and shouting slogans hailing Fidel and Raul Castro.

No physical altercation took place and the dissidents eventually boarded a public bus that took them back to their homes.

Laura Pollan, a founder of the Ladies in White, told Efe that the group’s intention was “to demand the prisoners’ freedom” at the Supreme Court because “that’s the (body) that judges and can get together and determine whether or not to free them.”

On Tuesday, the Ladies in White began an observance of the sixth anniversary of the Black Spring arrests by demanding the “immediate and unconditional” release of the remaining prisoners.

The group noted in a letter to President Raul Castro and older brother Fidel that 54 of the “Group of 75” remained behind bars six years after they were sentenced in summary trials.

“They have served over three times more than you did when you were imprisoned for attacking the Moncada Barracks, where blood was spilled on both sides and you were granted amnesty,” the missive said, a reference to the Castro brothers’ failed 1953 assault on a military installation.

Of the 75 dissidents sentenced in 2003, 54 are still in jail and 19 were paroled on medical grounds.

Reynaldo Labrada left prison in January after serving a sentence of five years and 10 months, while Miguel Valdes Tamayo died in January 2007 after his early release due to poor health. EFE