August 29, 2002

 

Call to mobilize public opinion in defense of the Five

CUBAN analysts in a televised roundtable have called for a mobilizing of international public opinion to demand justice for Gerardo Hernįndez, Ramón Labańino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzįlez and René Gonzįlez when their cases come before the Atlanta Appeals Court.

In the opinion of Cuban lawyer Julio Fernįndez Bulté, popular mobilization - particularly within the United States - will have an important bearing on the ruling of the panel of three judges at the Atlanta Appeals Court.

He emphasized that, while significant, the support of the U.S. National Association of Lawyers is not sufficient in this situation. In a recent teleconference at their headquarters, that organization acknowledged the political dimensions of the Five’s trial and backed a retrial on two main grounds: Cuba’s right to take relevant measures to defend itself from the acts of terrorism it has suffered in the last 40 years, and the anti-Cuban environment reigning in Miami, which in legal terms should have invalidated that city as a venue for the trial.

Fernįndez Bulté affirmed the need for the backing of wide social sectors in the United States, as was the case in the fight for the return of the child Eliįn Gonzįlez, retained in that country for more than seven months against the wishes of his family in Cuba.

“If we can succeed in swaying public opinion in favor of the five imprisoned men, the Atlanta judges will have to think about their verdict because it may not be the decision of Cuba’s enemies,” he noted, in an allusion to the attitude of anti-Cuban groups located in Southern Florida.

The five Cubans were detained by the FBI in Miami in September 1998 on alleged charges of endangering U.S. national security, and sentenced to hefty prison terms in a manipulated and rigged trial.

The expert affirmed that the Five’s defense lawyers are to appeal all the sentences, emphasizing the significance of life sentences for charges of conspiracy to engage in espionage and murder, because if these charges are eliminated, the fight for justice could flow through easier legal channels.

“This process is purely technical,” he pointed out, “because the panel of judges are reviewing whether U.S. legal principles were violated from a legal point of view, and will hear the pleas of those representing the sentenced men.

He went on to affirm that the only way of achieving a retrial would be if Atlanta gave the green light to the lawyers’ claim for moving the trial to a city less hostile to the prisoners, as rejected by session judge Joan Lenard on July 27, 2001.

That outcome would be a great triumph “as it would clear the way, given the behavior of a jury manipulated by the press in Southern Florida, which from the beginning incited the hatred of the Cuban-American community resident there against Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René,” he explained.