Unprecedented Decision in Atlanta on Cuban Five Case

Is not the end.

Exactly a year after a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta unanimously overturned the convictions in Miami of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters, the full court ruled Wednesday on the prosecution’s request to reconsider the August 9, 2005 decision.
In a 120-page document the full 12-magistrate court decided, with two judges dissenting, against the defense request for a change of venue and a new trial and sent the case back to the three judge panel for consideration of remaining issues.
In their ruling a year ago the judges had limited themselves to addressing the Cuban Five’s contention that pervasive community prejudice against the Cuban government and publicity surrounding the case prevented them from receiving a fair trial.
In throwing out their convictions and sentences the three-judge panel had unanimously agreed that pretrial publicity combined with pervasive anti-Cuba feeling in Miami didn't allow for a fair trial. The US government then asked the full appeals court to reconsider, ending in yesterday’s decision and a return to square one.
The ruling means a further dragging out of the case and continues the indefinite imprisonment of the five Cubans, who will reach eight years behind bars on Sept. 12.
The Cuban Five maintain their efforts were restricted to gathering information on violent Miami-based rightwing groups, some of whom have carried out terrorist actions against the island for over four decades.
The goal was to keep Cuban and US citizens from being the victims of terrorist acts promoted by individuals like Luis Posada Carriles, a confessed assassin accused of being behind the blowing up of a Cuban airliner killing 73 persons.
Posada Carriles is currently under US government protection and a hearing on his request for US citizenship is scheduled for consideration on August 14. Posada believes he deserves US citizenship for services rendered in the US army and with the CIA under George Bush Sr.
The news on the Atlanta court ruling came shortly after the nightly Cuban television Round Table program had updated viewers on the Cuban Five case. The panelists in the program noted that six months had gone by since the full court had listened to oral arguments from the defense and prosecution.
The full court’s very acceptance to reconsider the original unanimous decision of the three judge panel overturning the Cuban Five’s convictions was considered by many legal experts to be unprecedented in US law.
Cuba has repeatedly maintained that the bad faith demonstrated by the prosecution confirms the political nature of the case, filled from the beginning with hate and a desire for revenge against Cuba.
The ruling comes at a time of stepped up calls in Miami from Cuban-American extremists for a blood bath on the island, while advocating political assassination and genocide to destroy the Cuban Revolution once and for all.
(from Granma)

One Year Since the Atlanta Decision on the Cuban Five

"These judges could not ignore the truth"

Says Ian Thompson of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
LAST year's decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturning a Miami court ruling against the Cuban Five was "historic" and "necessary," commented California Lawyer Ian Thompson who represented the US National Lawyers Guild at the oral hearing of the case in March 2004.
"These judges realized that, with all the evidence facing them, they could not ignore the truth and the injustice that had been perpetrated against these five Cuban men," he said in an interview with Granma. The National Lawyers Guild, to which Thompson belongs, represents nearly 5,00 attorneys in the United States.
The three judges announced their verdict on August 9th 2005.However the five Cubans are still locked up in five different prisons across the United States.
"It was an extraordinarily detailed opinion that delved into the massive irregularities in the trial of the Cuban Five and also the pervasive character of prejudice against the Cuban government and any of its agents or supporters in Miami," said Thompson.
"Also important was a long section in the opinion that discussed the long history of brutal and murderous terrorism against Cuba launched mostly from U.S. shores with U.S. government backing."
In their opinion, after much time and deliberation, the three judges demonstrated that the Five could not have received a fair trial in Miami for these reasons, explained the Californian Lawyer.
"They talked about the intimidation of the jury, the media bias, inappropriate witness statements from right-wing terrorists like (José) Basulto and more. All of this made the Five's case a very abnormal judicial spectacle at the time of the trial. This was hard for the judges to ignore."
August 9th, 2005, the three judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled to reverse the sentences of the Cuban Five. The court recognized the right of the five Cubans to be impartially judged in a non-hostile environment, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Many US lawyers were "surprised" and "dismayed" by the 11th Circuit's decision to review the opinion of this three judge panel. "A review of this type is granted very rarely," Thompson stressed adding that the Bush administration was "certainly upset" with the decision vindicating what the Five's lawyers had been saying for years: the Five couldn't receive a fair trial in Miami."
"The opinion of the three-judge panel should have been relatively unassailable because of its attention to the facts and details of the case," affirms Thompson. "It was over 90 pages long and took a dispassionate look at the objective situation facing the Cuban people and the climate of fear in Miami pushed by a small group of right-wing Cubans, who dominate the public discourse and silences others with differing opinions on Cuba."
It's not clear what the 11th Circuit will now do, comments the lawyer. The court has heard oral arguments and everybody is now waiting for a decision.
"The facts of the case have not changed, the outrageous nature of the charges pending against the Five have not changed; nor has the fact that they are still being held in maximum security prisons unjustly."
One year ago, the three magistrates concluded that the convictions should be overturned and that a new trial should be held. "Although that opinion legally cannot guide the 11th Circuit's deliberations, it is a material factor in the legal trajectory of the overall case of the Cuban Five." The National Lawyers Guild is working very hard to support the legal end of the Five's case, says Thompson.
He then emphasized the significance of a march that will take place on September 23 in Washington, D.C., to demand the release of the Cuban Five and an end to U.S. government-sponsored terrorism against Cuba. Heidi Boghosian, National Lawyers Guild Executive Director, will represent this organization at the rally.
The event, says Thompson, will be a great opportunity for lawyers, activists, and progressive pro-Cuba people to discuss strategies for expanding and amplifying support for the Five in the United States.
"We think it is important for all people in the U.S. who care about justice to get involved," he concluded.
The Five remain incarcerated in US penitentiaries despite this favorable decision of the Atlanta court and a May 27th, 2005 decision of the United Nations Human Rights Commission Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.
The UN panel of experienced jurists declared the imprisonment of Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and René González "arbitrary and illegal."
A March to the White House*
On September 23, the US National Committee to Free the Cuban Five will hold a March to the White House and a major public forum in Washington "to commemorate the victims of 1976 and to demand freedom for the Cuban Five."
September delineates eight years since the Cuban Five were arrested by the FBI. "For eight years the Five have been unjustly imprisoned for the "crime" of risking their lives in order to stop violent terrorist attacks from the U.S. on Cuba," recalls a message from the Committee.
It also marks the 30th anniversary of the car-bomb murder in Washington DC of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt by Cuban counterrevolutionaries working closely with the CIA.
Just two weeks after the murder of Letelier and Moffitt, the same terrorist network bombed a Cuban airliner in flight over Barbados, killing all 73 passengers aboard, on Oct. 6, 1976.
"It was to stop these kind of horrific attacks that the Cuban Five — Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González — came to south Florida and infiltrated the terrorist groups which operate there with impunity," says the Committee.
The march will be followed by a public forum with speakers including Leonard Weinglass, attorney for the Five; Francisco Letelier, son of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier assassinated in New York by Cuban mercenaries; Livio Di Celmo, brother of Fabio Di Celmo murdered in terrorist attack on Cuba; Gloria La Riva, Coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five, USA; Andres Gomez, Coordinator of the Antonio Maceo Brigade; and others

Gerardo Hernández’s message to the Cuban people

Gerardo Hernández

2006-08-02

We have known about the health situation of our Commander in Chief and we are confident in his prompt recuperation.
To our people we say, that you in Cuba and we in the prisons of the Empire will continue forward with much more force.
Now we are more united that ever, together with Cuba and with you, dear Comandante.
The Five wish you a prompt recuperation.
I embrace you on behalf of my brothers Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and myself.
Gerardo Hernández, USP VICTORVILLECaliforniaUnited States