Amnesty Int'l Calls for Review of Cuban Five Case

By Rose Ana Berbeo
Prensa Latina
October 15, 2010

http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229207&Itemid=1

Havana

In one of the latest example of worldwide calls for
justice for the Cuban Five, the London-based
international human rights organization Amnesty
International sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder calling for a review of their case.

In a report released on Wednesday, the group, which has
often joined campaigns against the Cuban Government,
questions however the fairness of the trial in the U.S.
for Cuban antiterrorists Fernando González, Gerardo
Hernández and Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and René
González.

It further urges the U.S. government to grant visas to
their wives to be able to visit them.

The Five have been held since their arrest in 1998, and
after a rigged trial on espionage charges, have been
serving unjust terms ranging from 15 years to life in
U.S. federal prisons. But what they were actually doing
was monitoring violent anti-Cuban groups in Florida to
prevent terrorist actions.

In a Wednesday press release, Amnesty International
says that in its letter to Holder on Oct. 4, it "noted
doubts about the fairness and impartiality of the trial
which have not been resolved on appeal."

"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," the press release adds.

Even the prosecutors in the trial admitted they had no
evidence to prove the espionage charges nor that they
represented a threat to the U.S. national security, nor
to prove the charge of conspiracy to support murder
against Gerardo Hernández.

The group holds that "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 U.S.
government to review the case and mitigate any
injustice through the clemency process or other
appropriate means, should further legal appeals prove
ineffective," the press release underlines.

The organization further notes it has "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."

It says it was "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
statesâ?Ö obligation to protect family life. Amnesty
International continues to urge the government to grant
the wives temporary visas on humanitarian grounds."

Amnesty International had previously called for visas
to be granted to Perez

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