HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuba on Thursday released jailed opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer as part of a landmark deal struck with departing United States (US) President Joe Biden in return for sanctions relief, Ferrer’s family confirmed.

“Thank God we have him home,” Ferrer’s wife, Nelva Ortega, told AFP about the dissident who has long been in and out of prison, his latest stint stretching to 3.5 years.

Ferrer is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began releasing Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the communist island from a list of terrorism sponsors.

Under the deal, Cuba has promised to release 553 prisoners. So far it has only released about two dozen, according to rights groups.

Ferrer was one of 75 political prisoners sentenced to 25 years in 2003, as part of the so-called Black Spring wave of repression unleashed by authorities.

He was released in 2011, alongside 130 other political prisoners, following mediation by the Catholic Church.

Later that year, he founded the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), one of the most active opposition organisations in a one-party state that bans opposition parties.

He was sent back to prison after taking part in major anti-government protests that rocked towns and cities across the island nation on July 11, 2021.