June 11, 2008
When, on August 9, 2005, the 3-judge panel of the Atlanta Court of Appeals, handed down a just and ethical ruling and called for a new trial of the five Cuban anti-terrorist activists that served sentences in US jails, establishing that Miami was not an acceptable venue for their trial, it appeared that the US justice system would at last do justice in this long process that has been replete with arbitrary decisions and political manipulation.
A year later, the Court plenary, arriving at a verdict that has no precedent in US judicial history, ruled against the decision of its three judges, validated the trial held in Miami and once again referred the case to the three-judge panel so that it would consider new allegations put forth by the defence.
After long months of wait, this past June 4th, the three-judge panel issued a 99-page document, that distort the facts and is full of anticuban prejudices, which ruled that the arguments of the defence were “lacking in merit” and ratified the guilty verdicts of the five Cuban anti-terrorist activists and two sentences – that of René González (15 years) and Gerardo Hernández (two life sentences plus 15 years). Meanwhile the panel overturned three of them, those of Ramón Labañino (a life sentence plus 18 years), Antonio Guerrero (life sentence plus 10 years) and Fernando González (19 years), referring the latter to the Court of Miami, to be re-sentenced by the same judge, Joan Lenard, who imposed the excessive sentences upon them in the first place.
It is worth stressing that this decision has been made public within the context of the United States' current electoral process, in which, as is well known, the issue of Cuba, particularly in Florida, is of special significance, and at a time when the US government is stepping up its efforts to offer permanent harbour to the notorious and confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, refusing to extradite him to Venezuela. Posada Carriles escaped from a Venezuelan prison, when he was being tried for the mid-air bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner that carried 73 people on board, in violation of international conventions against terrorism.
It comes as no surprise, also, that this decision was drawn up, on behalf of the panel, by a judge, William Pryor, whose appointment as federal judge by President Bush was, owing to his far-right stances, highly controversial and met with condemnation in important US political and public opinion circles. The appointment of this judge, let us not forget, was ratified, with the opposition of 45 senators, by the US Senate, through a negotiated arrangement with the current Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
The Permanent Commission for International Relations of the National Assembly of the People’s Power, sharing in the justified indignation of the National Assembly deputies, of all Cubans and the relatives of our five compatriots, condemn this absurd decision and the manipulation that this process is again being subjected to. We call on parliaments around the world, on their commissions on international relations, human rights and judicial matters and parliamentary Cuba solidarity groups to pronounce themselves against this new injustice and condemn it before US authorities, international and human rights organizations. We also call on them to undertake any other actions that could help bring about justice for these five Cubans who, having served nearly 10 long years of harsh and cruel imprisonment, subjected to inhumane forms of punishment, denied regular visits by their relatives (in two cases, denied all visits from their wives), are in prison for the sole fact of being Cubans who fought against terrorist groups based in southern Florida, protected by US authorities.
International Relations Commission
National Assembly of People’s Power
Havana, June 11, 2008
