[Ppnews] Amnesty International Seeks Review of Case of the Cuban Five
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Oct 13 15:49:09 EDT 2010
http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20101013001&lang=e
Amnesty International Press Release
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Amnesty International Seeks Review of Case of the Cuban Five
--
Human rights organization calls on US government
to review case and mitigate any injustice
Contact: AIUSA media relations office,
202-509-8194
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202-509-8194 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
(Washington, D.C.) In a report released today,
Amnesty International outlines its concerns with
the fairness of the trial of five men convicted
in 2001 of acting as intelligence agents for
Cuba, among other charges. The five men are
serving terms ranging from 15 years to life in US federal prisons.
In a letter sent to United States Attorney
General Eric Holder on October 4, Amnesty
International noted doubts about the fairness and
impartiality of the trial which have not been
resolved on appeal. The human rights organization
has not taken a position on whether the five men
are guilty or innocent of the charges against them.
The five -- Cuban nationals Fernando González,
Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, and US
nationals Antonio Guerrero and René González --
were tried in Miami and convicted on various
counts, including acting and conspiring to act as
unregistered agents of the Republic of Cuba,
fraud and misuse of identity documents and, in
the case of three of the accused, conspiracy to
transmit national defense information. Gerardo
Hernández was further convicted of conspiracy to
murder, based on his alleged role in the 1996
shoot-down by Cuba of two planes operated by a US
anti-Castro organization, Brothers to the Rescue, in which four people died.
Amnesty Internationals report said holding the
trial in Miami, given the pervasive hostility to
the Cuban government in that area, along with
media and other events before and during the
trial were factors that made it impossible to ensure a wholly impartial jury.
Other concerns included questions about the
strength of the evidence to support the
conspiracy to murder conviction in the case of
Gerardo Hernández, and whether the circumstances
of the pre-trial detention of the five men, in
which they had limited access to their attorneys
and to documents, may have undermined their right to defense.
Amnesty International has called on the
government to review the case and mitigate any
injustice through the clemency process or other
appropriate means, should further legal appeals prove ineffective.
Amnesty International has also reiterated its
concern about the repeated denials by the US
government of temporary visas to allow the Cuban
wives of two of the prisoners, René González and
Gerardo Hernández, to visit their husbands. The
organization is concerned that such a blanket or
permanent bar on visits with their wives
constitutes additional punishment and is contrary
to international standards for the humane
treatment of prisoners and states obligation to
protect family life. Amnesty International
continues to urge the government to grant the
wives temporary visas on humanitarian grounds.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace
Prize-winning grassroots activist organization
with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists
and volunteers in more than 150 countries
campaigning for human rights worldwide. The
organization investigates and exposes abuses,
educates and mobilizes the public, and works to
protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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