Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuba's Roman Catholic Church on Thursday announced the names of five more prisoners to be freed who do not belong to a group of 52 jailed dissidents originally set for release.
The church identified the four men and one woman as Juana Maria Mena Nieves, Domingo Mederos Ozuna, Juan Francisco Gomez Marimon, Misael Mena Fernandez, and Jose Luis Navarro Ramn.
They were incarcerated for crimes that include hijacking and terrorism.
Since July, Cuba has begun releasing larger numbers of political opposition leaders imprisoned during a government crackdown on internal dissent in March 2003 under then-president Fidel Castro.
Thirty-nine of 52 prisoners have since been released.
But now the government has also begun releasing prisoners who were not a part of the original list.
Earlier this month, at least nine other inmates were added to those Cuba plans to free, many of whom were convicted of violent crimes, according to the nation's independent Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
The announcement coincides with the awarding of another Cuban dissident, Guillermo Farinas, who received the European Parliament's 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on Thursday.
CNN
