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Cuban Parliament President Demands Freedom for Cuban Five

CUBA, September 13th, 2010.- Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon demanded the immediate release of five Cuban antiterrorist fighters in a political activity held in Havana on Saturday to mark 12 years of unjust incarceration in the United States.

During his address, Alarcon gave details about the biased legal process brought against the five men, listing the multitude of evidence that was ignored by the juries.

The Cuban Five “did not commit any crime and did not harm anybody; to the contrary, they sacrificed the best years of their youth to try to protect their people and stop criminal activities against Cuba,” said Alarcon.

The coordinator of the International Committee to Free the Five, Graciela Ramírez, also addressed participants marking the 12th year of confinement of the Cuban Five, speaking about the commitment of people around the world to continue the struggle in support of the five Cubans. “From north to south, honest men and women are standing up to tell Obama: Stop the Injustice! Freedom now!”

Also participating at the event were Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto, relatives of the Cuban Five, the Relatives of the Victims of Terrorism Committee and Giustino di Celmo, the father of the young Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, who died in 1997, the victim of a terrorist attack on a hotel in Havana carried out by terrorist organizations based in Miami.

Several artists also brought their voices to raise awareness about the case of the Five including the duo Ad Libitum, singer-songwriters Rochy, Manuel Argudín, Pepe Ordás, Danilo Vázquez, Eduardo Ramos and Sexto Nombre.

The misguided arrest of the Cuban Five in 1998 and the subsequent travesty of justice lead to their convictions on multiple unsubstantiated charges in 2001. The Cuban Five were dedicated to uncovering plots by ultra-rightwing Cuban-American organizations based in Miami with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people.

In a trial plagued with irregularities and held in a highly biased Miami court, the Cuban Five —Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González— were given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to consecutive life terms plus 15 years. The five Cubans were working to uncover information about terrorist activities being planned and carried out against Cuba by ultra-rightwing organizations based in southern Florida with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people. When they turned their information over to authorities they were arrested and have been in jail ever since.

A UN Working Group reviewing the case determined that the trial did not take place in a climate of objectivity and impartiality, which is required in order to conclude on the observance of the standards of a fair trial. The UN report also charges that the Cuban Five were wrongfully held for seventeen months in solitary confinement after their arrest, and that their lawyers were deprived of the opportunity to examine all of the available evidence before the government invoked the Classified Information Protection Act.

Shortly following the UN ruling, on August 9, 2005, a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta issued a 93-page reversal of the initial conviction as well as nullified the sentences. In response to the reversal, the Bush administration and Attorney General Gonzales vehemently pushed for the US Solicitor General to appeal the verdict of the three-judge panel’s decision before all twelve judges of the 11th circuit in Atlanta. This time the court bowed down to pressure from the Bush administration and reversed the previous pro-Cuban Five ruling by a vote of 10-2.

In 2008, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of all five prisoners, but ruled that the sentences handed down to Labaino, Guerrero, and Fernando Gonzlez were excessive. Subsequently their sentences were slightly reduced.

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