By requesting a reconsideration of the previous
Appeals Court decision, U.S. prosecutors are just
playing with time, because they know that their case
is lost, commented the president of the UK Committee
to Free the Five.
Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino,
Antonio Guerrero y Fernando González, were arrested
in 1998 in Miami while gathering information on anti-Cuban
terrorist groups based in the state of Florida.
After a politicized trial, they were handed down
severe prison sentences ranging from 15 years to
double life; all of the sentences were overturned
this past August 9, and that annulment is now
pending ratification by the 12 judges of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, at the request
of the U.S. Attorney.
This new maneuver, Fr. Bottoms noted, is being
closely followed by many friends of the Five in
Britain, who believe that justice will be done in
the end. Fr. Bottoms, an outstanding Cuba solidarity
activist in his country, added that international
public opinion is becoming more interested in the
case, as well as that of the notorious terrorist
Luis Posada Carriles, who has benefited from the
maneuvers of U.S. government prosecutors.
People are beginning to realize Washington’s
hypocrisy in its supposed war on terrorism, he
affirmed.
He said that it was inconceivable that Posada
Carriles and his accomplice, Orlando Bosch, should
receive privileged treatment from U.S. authorities,
while those same authorities are persecuting and
condemning the five Cuban patriots.
He accused the United States of blocking contact
between the Five and their family members, whose U.S.
entry visas are refused or delayed.
Because of that intransigence, Olga Salanueva,
the wife of René González, and their young daughter,
Ivette, have gone five years without seeing René.
Even worse is the case of Adriana Pérez and
Gerardo Hernández, who haven’t seen each other for
seven years, due to repeated visa refusals by the
U.S. State Department.
Fr. Bottoms noted that these irregularities would
be explained during the days of solidarity with the
Five that are being organized by the Committee in
four British cities during early December.
Those events will feature the presence of Olga
Salanueva and 7-year-old Ivette, Fr. Bottoms said.
(PL)
BRITISH
priest Father Geoffrey Bottoms affirmed yesterday (Thursday)
in Havana that the United States is trying to delay
the legal procedure for the five Cuban anti-terrorist
fighters unjustly imprisoned in that country. 