Release of Terrorist Posada Carriles Would Be a Mockery of Justice
Havana, Jan. 9, 2006. (AIN) If terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is released from detention in the US, this will be yet another mockery of justice shown by the Bush administration, said commentators on a "Round Table" broadcast aired on Cuban media.
Posada Carriles is to be brought before an immigration judge in El Paso Texas, where he has been held in detention since May 17, 2004. Posada's case will go before a revision hearing on January 24, where it is possible that he will be freed 60 days following those proceedings.
During the hearing, it will be determined whether the internationally known criminal "may be a menace to the community and if he will be willing to show up regularly to authorities." Under these standard procedures the murderer could be set free under conditions of parole.
It was pointed out on the news program that collusion by the US government to protect a long term servant follows precedents set when US authorities applied similar procedures to other high profile terrorists. Cited was the example of terrorist Orlando Bosch, who is receiving refuge with absolute impunity in South Florida, said Lazaro Barredo, the director of Granma newspaper.
Setting Posada Carriles free will confirm denunciations made by Cuba and will also clearly show the double standards of the "anti-terrorist" fight of the Bush administration. That government is obviously afraid that this terrorist will divulge critical information if he is taken before an impartial court and made accountable for his crimes, Barredo stated.
In a telephone contact with the "Round Table" law expert Jose Pertierra, who is representing Venezuela in the Posada Carriles case, reminded the audience that in May and June 2005, that South American nation requested the US government detain Posada Carriles under a provisional status so as to extradite him - something that is still pending within the US Department of Justice.
Providing Posada Carriles with the possibility of living freely in the United States would ignore his participation in the sabotage of a Cuban aircraft in 1976 in which 73 innocent people died. His release would disregard the criminal's participation in terrorist attacks with explosives that took place in Cuba in 1997 costing the life of an Italian tourist. His being freed will also dismiss Posada Carriles' literal escape from prison in Venezuela and Panama, where he was serving sentences imposed by those nation's courts for his criminal acts.
Margarita Morales, the daughter of one of the people killed in the ill-fated Cuban flight, spoke in name of the relatives of the victims and voiced the opinion that the government of the United States should not continue to ignore Posada Carriles's crimes, because -among other things- the terrorist is a menace to the American people themselves.
Wayne Smith former head of the US Interests Section in Cuba stated via a telephone link from Washington that the treatment Posada Carriles is receiving is absurd. "If they set him free, they will be contradicting President George W. Bush himself, who will then be in the same position as the terrorist," Smith said.
Although Posada Carriles's attorney Eduardo Soto is trying to ignore the ties between his client and Mafiosi Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitad -who are now in Miami jails under weapon smuggling charges- Cuban TV news analyst Reynaldo Taladrid reminded the audience. The two criminals have been denounced by Cuba as participating in the clandestine entry of Posada Carriles into the US.
Although thousands of illegal immigrants are expelled from the United States every year, Posada Carriles is receiving privileged treatment, Taladrid reiterated.
Radio Havana Cuba's international affairs expert Barbara Betancourt explained that American lawyers are indignant with the behavior of the prosecution in the case, which is attempting to block the submission of key documents supporting the five Cuban prisoners.
The Cuban Five -Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero- were jailed in 1998 and, although the Atlanta Federal Appeals Court declared their trial and sentences null and void, the prosecution is using all means to delay their release.