The battle for the release of five Cuban men held as political prisoners in
the United States continues with an information campaign to raise the awareness of a case where the US authorities have perverted justice, said Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban parliament.
The battle for the release of five Cuban men held as political prisoners in
the United States continues with an information campaign to raise the awareness of a case where the US authorities have perverted justice, said Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban parliament.
Speaking on the nightly Round Table TV and radio program on Thursday evening, Alarcon unmasked the legal maneuvers of the US government, including the conduct of the prosecution and other entities and provided an update on the appeals process.
On July 24, the defense lawyers presented arguments against the June 4 ruling of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta, which sustained the guilty verdicts against the Cuban Five.
However, the court annulled the sentences imposed on Fernando Gonzales (19 years), Ramon Labanino (life imprisonment plus 19 years) and Antonio Guerrero (life and 10 years) and returned their cases to the Federal District Court in Miami and Judge Joan Lenard for new sentencing.
The court also upheld sentences against Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez.
A larcon said the perversion of justice is a result of either malicious incompliance or ignorance, along with fraudulent decisions by a judge, evident in all the officials that have dealt with the case of the Cuban Five since they were first arrested in the US in 1998.
Regarding the latest refusal of the US Interests Section in Havana to grant a visa to Olga Salanueva (wife of Rene Gonzalez), and Adriana Perez (wife of Gerardo Hernandez), Alarcon explained that Salanueva was notified that she is “ineligible” for having been expelled from the US, and Adriana received the same delayed reply she has received on eight other occasions.
In the case of Tony Guerrero, Alarcon noted that when he was recently visited by his sister and son, they closed down the prison and couldn’t complete their visits, and now must wait for another opportunity to be granted them. They termed the situation an additional illegal punishment of the prisoner and a low blow to the family members by the authorities.
The deliberate actions of the prosecution and other US government offices were also revealed on the Round Table program, which included statements from attorney Roberto Gonzalez, brother of Rene, and Leonard Weinglass, a US defense attorney, who spoke by telephone on the latest steps of the appeals process.
Weinglass explained that they had requested a new hearing, on the basis that the decisions adopted by the court on June 4 and 5 are based on erroneous information, pure fiction and not on real facts and a rigorous application of the law.
He expounded on details of the process and stated his hope that a new court ruling will take weeks instead of months.
Roberto Gonzalez said they are appealing the ruling against ratification of the charge of conspiracy to commit murder unjustly leveled against Gerardo Hernandez, on which the three appeals judges have spoken indistinctly.
Also broadcast on the program was a fragment of statements by prestigious Chilean judge Juan Guzman who —after attending the last hearing and listening to the judges, prosecution and defense lawyers— concluded that the Cuban Five are innocent and believes that the US government is politically interested in condemning them.