US Supreme Court Ruling against the Cuban Five Reverberates in the Media

HAVANA, Cuba, June 16 (acn) The US Supreme Court's refusal to review the case of five Cubans serving long sentences for their efforts to combat terrorism reverberated through the local and international media on Monday.

The judges decided to uphold the long and arbitrary sentences levied against Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González -internationally known as the Cuban Five -, despite calls from the international community, including 10 Nobel Prize winners, to review the case.

The Latin American television network Telesur reported that the defense of the Cuban Five, who have been imprisoned since 1998, requested the Supreme Court to reopen the case on the grounds that the Cubans did not receive a fair trial in Miami, where the core of the Cuban counterrevolution is located.

The Cuban Five were condemned in 2001 by a Miami court to sentences ranging from 15 years to double life imprisonment.

The Argentinean news agency Télam reports that the lawyers of the convicted men stated that they didn't have a fair trial, an argument the Court rejected on Monday, without making any comments.

Los Tiempos.com states that the US Supreme Court upheld the sentences against these men, despite the requests of several Nobel Laureates and activist groups.

Other news agencies also reported on the case including AP (USA), Reuters (GB) and EFE (Spain).

After calling to multiply the struggle for the Five, the presidency of the Cuban Parliament reported in a declaration that the top legal authority in the US had announced on Monday, without any explanation, its decision to not review the case.

The document states that the judges did what the administration of US President Barack Obama asked them to do, proving once again the arbitrariness of a corrupt and hypocritical system and its cruel malice against the Cuban heroes

Cuba News Agency

US Supreme Court will not Review Cuban Five Case despite World Claim

The US Supreme Court decided not to review the case of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unfairly held in US jails since 1998, despite the world claim for their release and the unprecedented number of amicus curiae briefs filed with the top judicial body.

The Court decision, which was released Monday June 15 and echoed by international media outlets, upholds the unfair convictions given in 2001 by a biased Miami trial to Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Rene González, Gerardo Hernandez and Antonio Guerero, internationally known as the Cuban Five.

The five Cubans had infiltrated ultra-right circles based in South Florida, which have undertaken terrorist actions against the Cuban people over the past four decades.

In August 2005, a three-judge panel at the Atlanta Court of Appeals unanimously ordered the annulment of the 2001 Miami trial against the Cuban Five and ordered a new judicial process in another US city. However, shortly after that, the full panel of judges of that same Court of Appeals again affirmed the convictions against the Cuban Five.

That same year, the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detentions adopted a resolution in support of the five Cuban antiterrorists and suggested that the case should be reviewed.

The release of the Cuban Five has been largely demanded by people all over the world, government officials in different countries, parliamentarians, Nobel laureates, non-governmental organizations. The international campaign has people of good will around the world against the injustice committed against five Cubans who tried to prevent terror actions against their country.

Cuba Now