By Moimot Olayimla

THE Cuban embassy has demanded the release of the five Cubans held in United States’s prisons since 1998 on espionage and conspiracy charges.

Envoy at a press meet on the occasion of International Solidarity Day

Alejandro R Fuentes Febles, third secretary at the Cuban mission, told mediapersons yesterday on the occasion of ‘International Solidarity Day’ that the Cubans were being held unjustly by the US government after they were falsely charged and convicted as spies while peacefully defending Cuba from US-backed terrorist groups based in Miami.

“What we are doing today is to inaugurate for the media a new section about the ‘Cuban five’ in Qatar. This belongs to international activities on solidarity for the ‘Cuban five’ around the world. The campaign will run until October 8,” he said.

The incarcerated Cubans are Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez. “They have been sentenced to four life terms and 75 years in US prisons, which has led to many solidarity campaigns around the world,” he said.

“Their imprisonment by the US is to impose sufferings on other people. They have been denied access to their families and loved ones.”

He said that wives of the two have been denied visas to enter the US to visit them in prisons.

“On September 12, these five men, accused of crimes they did not commit, began their tenth year in prison,” Febles said.

“Cuba like the US and any other country has a legitimate right to defend itself against the scourge of terrorism that has harmed so many people,” he said.

ccording to a statement issued by the defence counsel of the five on August 23, which was made available to journalists at the event, a hearing in the appeal against their detention was held on August 20.

“During the appeal, the defence demonstrated irrefutably that the improper conduct of the government during the entire legal process against the five constituted a flagrant violation of due process that influenced the entire proceeding,” the release said.

It added that other key arguments of the defence demonstrated the arbitrariness of the process and lack of evidence to sustain the two main accusations – conspiracy to commit espionage and murder in the first degree and the imposition of completely irrational and unjustifiable life sentences.

“The US government itself admitted during trial that it could not present a single secret document to prove espionage and that it faced an ‘insurmountable obstacle’ to prove the charge of murder.”

“Throughout the tainted process, the government admitted that its real concern was to protect the anti-Cuban terrorist groups that operate with impunity in Miami and to punish those who fight against them.”

“We trust in the professionalism of the panel of judges and that sooner or later justice will prevail for Gerardo, Rene, Antonio, Ramon and Fernando,” the counsel said

17-09-2007