CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Habeas Corpus Petition for Gerardo Hernández Awaiting Response.

CUBA, August 30, 2011.- The international solidarity movement with the case of the Cuban Five is carefully following the petition of Habeas Corpus for Gerardo Hernández, one of the five imprisoned Cuban anti-terrorist fighters. Hernández, incarcerated in a maximum security prison in Victorville, California, is sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years. He appeared in court on August 16th with a 65-page document of new arguments before Judge Joan Lenard, the same judge who sentenced all five of them in 2001.

Among the new documents from his legal council, there are three attachments with a declaration by his former lawyer Paul McKenna, who admits there were errors in the original defense of Gerardo. There is also text about the payment of a quarter of a million dollars from the U.S. government to media sources in Miami, who were instructed to demonize the defendants; therefore swaying public opinion and helping to achieve a guilty sentence.alt

The opportunity for appeal in Gerardo Hernandez's case is over, but the extraordinary procedure of habeas corpus is the last legal option for convicted individuals who have unsuccessfully used all the other legal resources available to them. Habeas Corpus applies when it is considered that an individual’s fundamental, constitutional rights have been violated, and the sentence should be reviewed again. Last April, prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller, working on behalf of the U.S. government, requested that the Miami court reject an appeal that would favour the Cuban anti-terrorist fighter. Other obstacles have been put in place leading up to the petition of Habeas Corpus. For example, the communication between Gerardo and his lawyers and Cuban embassy officials was made difficult by limiting their access to correspondence regarding the case.

The petition of Habeas Corpus is based on two fundamental questions: the corruption, which is proven by documents saying that Washington paid journalists in Miami to write biased reports against the Cuban Five, and his absolute innocence with respect to the shooting down of the planes belonging to the Miami-based terrorist organization, “Hermanos al Rescate”, or “Brothers to the Rescue”, in February, 1996. Gerardo was sentenced to one life sentence for that incident.

One element of the document is the request of satellite images from the U.S. government of the event, which would prove that the planes were shot down in Cuban waters, as Havana has always claimed. One decade ago, on May 25th, 2001, the White House admitted it had no evidence to sustain the charge of conspiracy to murder against Gerardo, and requested the removal of the charge. The text that documents this, called Urgent Request of Auto-Inhibitor of Appeals Court, also states that proof of this in court would cause an unbeatable obstacle for the U.S. in this case, and would most likely result in the failure of the accusation. The court rejected the request and the judge declared Gerardo guilty of the supposed crime. The court has not yet decided if it will accept the habeas corpus petition. (Cubaminrex-RHC)

<< Back