HAVANA, Cuba , August 1 (acn) The President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, said on Thursday that the US Government is guilty of corrupt practices in the case of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States after almost 10 years.
Speaking at the prime time radio and television program ‘The Round Table’, Alarcon stressed that Washington has failed to comply with or ignore its public duties, which has been perceived in the behavior of all government officials involved in the case against Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero – internationally known as the Cuban Five – since their arrest in 1998 for infiltrating anti-Cuba extremist organizations in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against the Caribbean nation.
He also pointed out that the United States government is guilty of prevarication because from the very beginning, the US Government and all those US officials involved in the case, have violated their duties and have acted in a fraudulent way.
The Cuban top legislator recalled that last week, the defense team of the Cuban Five submitted appeal statements against a ruling last June by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta that ratified the guilty verdicts against the Five.
On that occasion, an appeals panel revoked the sentences against Fernando (19 years), Ramon (life sentence plus 18 years) and Antonio (life sentence plus 10 years) and sent their case back to the ‘first instance’ judge, that is, to Judge Joan Lenard of the Miami Dade Federal District Court . In addition, the panel upheld the sentences against Rene (15 years) and Gerardo (two lifetime sentences plus 15 years).
Regarding the most recent US denial of visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez – wives of Rene and Gerardo, respectively - to visit their husbands, the president of the Cuban Parliament explained that Olga received a notification describing her as ‘ineligible’ for having been expelled from the country while Adriana was told that her case was still being analyzed, as on seven previous occasions.
Leonard Weinglass, member of the Five’s defense team and well-known civil rights defender in US courts, explained by telephone link-up that the Five’s legal representatives had asked for a re-hearing alleging that the June decision by the appeals panel was made based on erroneous information, pure fiction and false acts. He filled in the details of the process and said that he hopes that the court will give a decision on a new trial a matter of weeks.
