Release of 5 Cuban Agents in U.S. Sought

[Judi Lynn]

Release of 5 Cuban Agents in U.S. Sought

By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer

August 30, 2005, 8:20 PM EDT

HAVANA -- Several Nobel laureates and leftist intellectuals called for the release of five Cuban agents awaiting a new trial in the United States in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales released Tuesday.

Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky and Rigoberta Menchu were among hundreds who signed the letter, which said "nothing justifies (the men's) incarceration" given a recent ruling to throw out their previous convictions.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta nullified convictions and sentences from the men's trial in Miami, citing prejudicial publicity. Many Cuban immigrants opposed to President Fidel Castro and his communist government live in the Miami area.

The men -- Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez -- were convicted in June 2001 of serving as unregistered agents of a foreign government. They remain imprisoned pending a new trial.

"This arbitrary situation which is extremely painful for them and their families cannot be allowed to continue," said the letter, also signed by American personalities such as Alice Walker, Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.
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