Havana, Nov 9 (AIN) The Namibia-Cuba Friendship Association has awarded the five Cubans cruelly held as political prisoners in the United Status with honorary certificates for fighting terrorism and demanded their immediate release.

During a ceremony held in Windhoek, Association President, Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo, reiterated the Namibian people’s support for the cause of the Cuban Five while ratifying unconditional support for the Cuban Revolution.

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez were first arrested in 1998 under the false pretext that they had endangered US national security.

Their 2001 trial and conviction in a biased Miami, Florida courtroom have been denounced by legal experts and solidarity groups in dozens of countries.

On March 10, 2004, defense attorneys made their appeal for a retrial to a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta.

Eight months later a ruling is still pending. Cuban ambassador to Namibia, Cipriano Castro, attended the event as well members of the island’s medical brigade working in Windhoek and Kututura, and local students and journalists of the country’s leading press.

After playing both nations’ national anthems and the reading of a poem by Antonio Guerrero, the Cuban ambassador thanked the association for its solidarity gesture, which in its text also recognized the assistance provided by the Caribbean island in the struggle against apartheid and the liberation of African nations.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic and the Andes, in Lima, the President of the Peruvian Committee in Solidarity with the Five, journalist Gustavo Espinoza, announced a national solidarity day this Friday to demand the release of the five Cubans who sought to defend their country against terrorist actions.