[antiwar-van] US Government asks for extension in Cuban Five case

[Tamara Hansen]

US Government Asks for Extension in Cuban Five Case

http://www.plenglish.com/
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H42821DAB


Washington, Aug 25 (Prensa Latina) The US government
has requested the Atlanta Appellate Court for an
extension of the deadline, so that prosecutors have
more time to appeal the pannel´s unanimous decision
of August 9th that reversed the convictions of the
Cuban Five and remanded a new trial.

According to the verdict of the US Court of Appeals
11th Circuit in Atlanta, prosecutors had 21 days to
appeal its ruling.

The White House, acting on behalf of the Miami
Attorney´s office, has requested 30 more days, till
September 29th, so the Miami attorneys make their
case. The move is seen as an attempt by the federal
government to prolong the legal process.

Since the three judge pannel issued its 93-page
ruling, the Miami attorneys have had no reaction to
it, till the White House now made the extension
request.

The Atlanta verdict reversed the convictions of
Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino,
Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, who were
sentenced in 2001 by a Miami court in a trial legal
experts believe was a frame-up to harsh terms ranging
from 15 years to double life imprisonment.

According to the President of the Cuban Parliament,
Ricardo Alarcon, the US executive office does not know
what to do because it has a lost case from the legal
point of view.

Legal experts have pointed out that according to the
Atlanta verdict, the Cuban Five are technically free
and should go home, but are still in prison in high
security penitentiaries.

The Atlanta decision was preceded by a UN pannel
decision that called the detention of the five Cubans
arbitrary.

mh/iff/rob

-------------------------------------------- 

Cubans Demand Release of the Five

Havana, Aug 25 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban people are
expectant today over what the US government would do
regarding the verdict of the Court of Appeals 11th
Circuit in Atlanta that reversed the convictions of
the Cuban Five and remanded a new trial.

The Bush administration is running out of time to
appeal the unanimous decision on August 9th of three
appellate judges, whose 93-page ruling has been
landmark in the case of the five Cuban antiterrorists.

Gerardo Hernández, Rene González, Ramon Labañino,
Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González were sentenced
from 15 years up to double life terms at a rigged
trial in Miami in 2001. They had been arrested in 1998
on charges of alleged spying and conspiracy. However,
the Five are considered political prisoners by
hundreds of solidarity organizations in the world and
their sentences the result of hatred toward the Cuban
revolution.

After the Atlanta ruling, the State had 21 days to
appeal it.

People around the world have demanded their release
and have condemned the unjust and inhumane treatment
to which they have been subjected to by the US
authorities, even denying two of them to see their
families.

After seven years in prison, including seventeen
months in isolation, the case of the Cuban Five gets
into a new phase, and the Cuban People are eagerly
expecting their just release.

Signs are visible all over cities and small towns,
both inside and outdoor, with the names and pictures
of Gerardo, Rene, Ramon, Antonio and Fernando bearing
the claim: "They will come back". They are even seen
on T-shirts across the country.

The White House should accept now the decision of the
US Court of Appeals and even facilitate their release.
They have suffered every kind of legal violation to
their human rights, stressed Oscar Romero, an official
for Radio Havana Cuba, in remarks to Prensa Latina.

For his part, Bienvenido Rojas, journalist and news
director for Radio Taino, believes that a new trial
would not be advisable for the US government as it
will expose the links of the US authorities with years
of terrorism against Cuba.

"What would a jury say when they know that the Five
were just trying to prevent terrorists such as Orlando
Bosch, who walks the Miami streets free, from carrying
out acts of terror like the mid-air bombing of a Cuban
commercial plane in 1976?" Rojas commented.

Bosch and his accomplice Luis Posada Carriles, who is
awaiting an immigration hearing in El Paso, Texas,
were the mastermind behind that horrendous crime that
killed 73 people, including all the Cuban junior
fencing team that coming home victorious after a
tournament in Caracas.

mh/isn/ool


	

	
		
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