Izquierdo Hernández, a reporter in western Havana for the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, was sentenced in April 2003 to 16 years in prison for acting “against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state” under Article 91 of the penal code. Following an appeal the next month, the People’s Supreme Tribunal Court upheld his conviction. In 2009, he was being held at the Guanajay Prison in his home province.
Izquierdo Hernández was diagnosed with severe depression, digestive ailments, circulatory problems, emphysema, and asthma, according to Laura Pollán Toledo, wife of fellow imprisoned journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez.