CUBAN 5 WIN NEW TRIAL!
This is a historic victory for the Cuban 5, for Cuba and for all oppressed people following the example of Cuba in the struggle against imperialism.
It is also a victory for the Free the Cuban 5 Committees across the globe, including the Free the Cuban 5 Committee Vancouver. Please see below for a backgrounder on the case of the Cuban 5 and on the struggle that the Free the Cuban 5 Vancouver committee has been taking on in defense of these revolutionary heros and the fight against US terror.
---------------------------------------
Breaking News - Cuban Five Win a New Trial! Announcement from the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
Today, August 9, after more than one year of weighing the evidence, the 11th Circuit Court of a Appeals vacated the trial court's ruling against the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial with a change of venue. This is a sensational victory for the Five, the Cuban people, and the international people's movement that supports them! The Five will now receive a new trial in a place other than Miami. This blow to the U.S. government undeniably was made possible by the hard work and growing support of progressive, justice-loving people in the U.S. and all over the world.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is holding a telephone press conference today with the Five's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, the coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Gloria La Riva, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Coordinator, Brian Becker, and other activists and legal experts to discuss this landmark victory. We will send more information as soon as we have it. In the meantime, call 323-464-1636 with questions.
The Five are one big step closer to freedom. Let's continue the struggle and ensure total victory. Free the Cuban Five!
U.S. Hands Off Cuba!
Volverán! They will return!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
For more info call 323-464-1636 or e-mail freethefivela@yahoo.com.
The convictions of the Cuban Five have been overturned by the federal appellate court in Atlanta, Georgia.
The request for change of venue has been granted and the case is being sent back for retrial OUTSIDE MIAMI. This is what the defense campaign has always sought
There will be a news conference in San Francisco at the offices of FREE THE FIVE at 10:00 AM today.
Speakers:
Gloria LaRiva, Free The Five
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for Gerardo Hernandez
Richard Klugh, Attorney from Public Defenders Office
Miami, Florida.
More details as soon as we have them.
NOTE THIS FROM ATTORNEY LEONARD WEINGLASS
During the trial, the attorneys for the Five requested a change of venue from Miami to another city five times. The judge denied each request. In December 2001, two of the Five were sentenced to life in prison, one to 19 years, and one, to 15 years. Gerardo Hernandez received two life terms.
Why is it not possible for Cuban nationals like the Five to receive a fair trial in Miami ? What role do anti-Cuban terrorists play?
Miami is the one city in the US where the Five certainly could not receive a fair trial. There are approximately 650,000 Cubans who live there in exile. They control the local press and the media, they occupy the public offices, and they are the major business figures in the area. These individuals and institutions are highly influential, and they all have one thing in common: they take a hard line on Cuba .
Miami is a different place than every other city in the US . A portion of the exile community has engaged in terrorism against Cuba for decades. Violence against Cuba is heralded in small, but vocal, circles in Miami . For instance, in Miami , the terrorist Orlando Bosch walks the streets a free man. The US Justice Department once labeled Bosch the most dangerous terrorist in the Western Hemisphere . He was responsible for bombing a Cuban passenger airline in mid-flight in 1976, killing all 73 passengers on board. Hard-line exiles and their supporters play a large role in shaping public opinion and debate in Miami . To try the Five in Miami was a clear violation of their right to have a trial free of outside influences that were rejudiced against them. The venue of the trial should have been moved out of Miami to another location.
DETAILS http://makeashorterlink.com/?W23F3249B
VOLVERAN! They will return! Free The Five!
-----------------------------------------------
Tuesday, August 9, 2005 · Last updated 10:04 a.m. PT Cuban agents to get new trial
By JOHN PAIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MIAMI -- A federal appeals court threw out the convictions and life sentences of five accused Cuban spies Tuesday, ruling that they did not receive a fair trial because of community prejudice and extensive publicity.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new trial after agreeing with the arguments of defense attorneys about the 2001 convictions. None of the jurors was Cuban, but the defense argued that prejudice against Fidel Castro and his communist government runs high in Miami.
Federal prosecutors had no immediate comment on the court's decision.
Also overturned was the murder conspiracy conviction of ringleader Gerardo Hernandez. He was also convicted for his role in the deaths of four Cuban exiles shot down by Cuban MiGs in international airspace in 1996, an event that sparked widespread condemnation.
All five Cubans were convicted in June 2001 of serving as unregistered agents of a foreign government. Evidence showed that two of them targeted U.S. military installations from Key West to Tampa and the ring spied on Cuban exiles.
The five admit being Cuban agents, but said they were spying on "terrorist" exile groups opposed to Castro, not the U.S. government. The defense said the agents' primary mission was to thwart extremist exiles who supported terrorism in Cuba, including a string of Havana bombings that killed one tourist and injured 12 others in 1997.
The five were the only ones who went to trial after they were indicted in 1998 as part of the 14-member Wasp Network.
Cuba has made the five a cause celebre, featuring them on a Web site and issuing a CD of one spy's jailhouse poetry set to music. Free the Five committees were set up in several countries.
Free the 5 Cuban Anti-Terrorist Heroes from US Jails!
End the Illegal & Criminal Imprisonment of the Cuban 5!
By Ian Beeching
From Fire This Time Newspaper - www.firethistime.net
In this era, where terror is a prominent tool of imperialist powers, and where independence is intolerable to them, five Cubans stand in prisons across the US as heroes of all working and oppressed people in the world. After decades of terror against the Cuban people instigated by terrorist groups harbored by the United States and its agencies like the CIA, the Cuban government decided it had to act. Between 1994 and 1995, Cuba sent five unarmed men, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramone Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez on a mission to infiltrate and expose Miami-based terrorist groups such as Alpha 66, Omega 7, Brothers to the Rescue and Cuba America National Foundation, the financial backbone of all anti-Cuban terrorist groups. These groups are responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks, which have taken the lives of thousands of Cubans.
The list of atrocities committed by these groups is long. They include the bombing of hotels in Cuba, assassinations, the spreading of disease, sabotage and attacks against Cuba supporters in the US such as the bombing of the Lincoln Center in 1978 after a Cuban ballet. One of the most horrendous attacks was the bombing of a Cuban airliner, which took the lives of 73 people in 1976. The Cuban 5 were valiantly struggling against this terror, putting themselves and their loved ones in mortal danger throughout the process.
In 1998, after having gathered sufficient evidence to expose the terrorists, Cuba released all the information that the Cuban 5 had gathered to the FBI. Immediately following this, the Cuban 5 were arrested and put in solitary confinement for 17 months. It was not until 2001 that these men were convicted. After a seven-month show trial (one of the longest in American history), the Cuban 5 were sentenced to between 15 years and double life, each in a separate maximum-security prison, barred from ever seeing their families.
Recently, a United Nations working group declared the detention of the Cuban 5 as arbitrary and against international law. The decision was made on the basis that the five were not granted access to all the evidence against them, that the trial was partial and that the legal process was in violation of treaties that the United States had signed. This is a tremendously important decision to the case of the Cuban 5 and will be invaluable in the coming appeals process.
Another important development is the publishing of a book on the case of the Cuban 5 in the United States. The book is called Superpower Principles: US Terrorism Against Cuba. At a time when all information on anti-Cuban terrorism is overtly suppressed by the international media, this book will play a pivotal role in informing people on the case of the Cuban 5. The book can be purchased at most major bookstores.
In Canada, it is our human duty to support the five Cuban heroes in US jails. On July 26th, the Vancouver chapter of the Free the Cuban 5 Committee joined with hundreds of people at the celebration of the beginning of the Cuban revolution organized by Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba. At this event, the Free the Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver presented the Vancouver premiere of the documentary “Mission Against Terror,” a film exposing America’s terrorist war against Cuba through the case of the Cuban 5.
With over 2000 signatures collected by Free the Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver demanding the immediate release of all five Cubans imprisoned in American jails, we call on all people concerned with justice and dignity to stand in solidarity with the Cuban 5 and sign the petition, which can found at www.vancubasolidarity.com, or to email cuban5_van@yahoo.com to join the campaign in Vancouver. NO TO US-SPONSORED TERRORISM AGAINST CUBA, FREE THE CUBAN 5!
Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba
778-882-5223
cubacommunities@yahoo.ca