[Ppnews] US Blocks Consular and Legal Visits of Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo

[Political Prisoner News]

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*
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 Announces:**

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*U.S. Blocks Consular and Legal Visits of *
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*Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo
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Once again an additional punishment has been inflicted upon Gerardo 
Hernandez
Nordelo, one of the Cuban 5 anti-terrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned 
in the United States for almost 14 years. On Saturday July 7 Cuban 
consuls  were not allowed to enter the prison  and on Monday July 9 his 
lawyer, Martin Garbus, was also denied a legal visit  having to resort 
instead to enter as a regular visitor. This meant that Garbus could not 
enter the prison with any legal documents for Gerardo's current appeal 
or any pens or writing paper.
*The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5* denounces 
this new arbitrary measure against Gerardo. It seems that it is not 
enough for the US government to keep 4 innocent men in prison and 
another under a punitive supervised probation, now they add more 
impediments to elementary legal and human rights.

We also demand the the US government  grant immediate visa to Adriana 
Perez to visit Gerardo in prison and to allow Rene Gonzalez to 
immediately return home to his loved ones.
*
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba *

One of the five antiterrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United 
States, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, has 
been subject  of a new arbitrariness by the authorities of that country, 
aiming at hindering his legal process.
Last Saturday, July 7th, the Cuban officers who had been already 
authorized by the State Department to carry out a consular visit to 
Gerardo, were not able to fulfill it, under the supposed argument that 
the memorandum of the Chief of the penitentiary center Victorville, in 
California, authorizing their entrance to the prison, was not available 
at the reception desk. This fact powerfully calls the attention  when, 
in addition to the procedures followed by the Cuban Interests Section in 
Washington with the State Department to get the authorization for this 
visit, Gerardo himself had reconfirmed with the prison´s authorities 
that everything was in order.

Additionally, last July 9th, lawyer Martin Garbus, member of Gerardo´s 
defense team, who had scheduled a legal visit to review, together with 
Gerardo, the documentation related to the current collateral process of 
appeal, was not able to do it with the same pretext that the memorandum 
of authorization of the chief of prison was not at the reception desk. 
Garbus could finally visit Gerardo, thanks to the fact that his name was 
on the visitor´s list; however, and given the conditions imposed to the 
type of visit he was authorized to, without a legal character, he could 
not bring in the documentation our Hero should read and sign, and 
neither met with him under the appropriate conditions.
This is not the first time events like this one occur. They have taken 
place systematically during every key moment of Gerardo´s legal process. 
Just to mention a few examples: in 2010, during the preparations of the 
collateral appeal, known as Habeas Corpus, the penitentiary authorities 
denied Gerardo the possibility to be visited by his lawyer Leonard 
Weinglass in two occasions, and deliberately delayed the delivery of his 
legal mail, which prevented his participation in the reviewing. In 2003, 
Gerardo was isolated in a punishment cell prior to the presentations of 
his direct appeal.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs denounces this new maneuver by US 
authorities, aiming at hindering Gerardo´s process of appeal, depriving 
him from one of the few rights he has as a prisoner in the United States.
Gerardo has been sent to solitary confinement several times without 
justification; he´s had repeated difficulties with his personal and 
legal mail; his wife, Adriana, has not been granted visa to visit him 
and they have not been able to conceive a child. During his long and 
unjust imprisonment, on charges for crimes he did not commit and have 
never been proved, his rights have been violated repeatedly.

Cuba will not stop denouncing to the world these violations and will not 
cease the efforts to achieve the return to the Homeland of Gerardo and 
his other four brothers unjustly imprisoned and retained in the United 
States for almost 14 years.
Havana July 12th, 2012
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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