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Cuban Five Appeal Court Hearing in Atlanta, Georgia

UNITED STATES, August 20, 2007.- The case of the five Cuban anti-terrorists currently held in US jails was heard Monday at the 11th Circuit Appeals Court in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lawyers and activists from around the world attended the hearing. Among them were Chilean judge Juan Guzman, who directed the cause against dictator Augusto Pinochet; Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general; congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D, Georgia); Paolo Lins e Silva, president of the International Union of Lawyers; Raymundo Cezar Britto, President of the Brazilian School of Law; and Camilo Ore, former president of the Supreme Court of Ecuador.

Others who converge on the southern US city were Belgians Eddy Boutmans, Paul Bekaert and Edith Flamand; Norman Paech, member of the German Parliament; Cuban Roberto Gonzalez, a member of the defense team, and Puerto Rican Rafael Anglada.

US experts attending the hearing included Vanessa Ramos, president of the American Association of Jurists; Heidi Boghosian and Brian Spears, of the National Lawyers Guild; Jeanne Mirer and Claudia Morcon, members of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, as well as jurists from Canada, Italy and Colombia.

The Cuban Five: Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González, were arrested on Sept. 12, 1998, and unjustly convicted before a Miami jury in June 2001, of espionage-conspiracy and related charges. As the Five showed in their 7-month trial, they were only in the U.S. to monitor terrorist groups and prevent further terrorist attacks against Cuba.

Speaking with Radio Havana Cuba, US lawyer Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero -one of the Cuban Five- referred to the issues addressed by the defense during today's hearing.

"First, said Weinglass, is the issue of whether or not Count 3, alleging a conspiracy to commit murder against Gerardo Hernandez-arising out of the shoot-down by Cuba of two aircraft in 1996-can be sustained on appeal.

The Five's defense team is arguing that the evidence on that alleged conspiracy is insufficient as a matter of law. Weinglass pointed out that this is the first time in history that an individual is being held liable for the action of a sovereign state in defending its airspace.

The second argument, said the US attorney, is the question of prosecutorial misconduct, particularly the misconduct of the prosecutor [U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakes] in his final argument to the jury, for instance his claim at one point that the Five went to the United States, not to monitor the activities of the terror network that had been assaulting the Cuban people, but instead he argued that their purpose in going there was to destroy the United States.

Weinglass stressed that the Five were unarmed, they carried no explosives, they committed no acts of sabotage or arson, and they threatened no one, and then referred to what he termed as the outrageous prosecutorial misconduct of the prosecutor.

The third argument is the question of the sentencing of the three of the Five who were accused of conspiracy to commit espionage [Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino]. Each of the three who were so accused received a life sentence.

Weinglass pointed out that this case was the first one in the history of the United States where there were no classified documents involved, noting that unlike the most notorious cases involving individuals who turned over to a foreign country, scores, sometimes hundreds and thousands of state secrets, in the case of the Five there were no such documents.

Weinglass stressed that, given the fact that the Five Cubans never had nor sought access to US state secrets; the life sentence in their case is oppressive and irrational.

"It was a sentence that obviously was reserved for Cuban patriots who took up the responsibility of exposing and trying to prevent the terror that emanates from the United States directed against Cuba," the US legal expert said.

This was the third time the case has gone before an appeals court. On August 9, 2005, after seven years of unjust imprisonment, the Cuban Five won an unprecedented victory on appeal. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial outside of Miami.

However, in an unexpected reversal on Oct. 31, the 11th Circuit Court vacated the three-judge panel's ruling and granted an "en banc" hearing before the full panel of 12 judges. Exactly one year after the victory that granted the Five a new trial, the panel voted 10 to 2 to deny the five heroes a new trial, and instead affirmed the trial court.

The case is now back to the three-judge panel to decide on the remaining issues of the appeals. The panel heard the case on Monday, but is not obliged to give an immediate ruling. (Cubaminrex-RHC)

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