Cuban 5 Remain Imprisoned Despite Orders For Their Release

[struggle4progress]

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006

In 1998, Ruben Campa, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Luis Medina and Antonio Guerrero were arrested in Florida and were tried and convicted of espionage and conspiracy. They were accused of spying on Cuban-American exile leaders and convicted in December of 2001. Last year, their convictions were overturned by a Federal Appellate court in Atlanta. The group is known as the Cuban five. We're joined in studio by one of their attorneys--Leonard Weinglass ...

LEONARD WEINGLASS: Well, they remain in prison, despite the fact that one year ago a court, a circuit court, of the 11th Circuit, ruled that they should be -- their conviction should be set aside. But the government, in an extraordinary move, appealed that decision to the full court. We reargued their case on February 14. We're now waiting for a new decision.

AMY GOODMAN: And “they” are who?

LEONARD WEINGLASS: The five are five men who came to the United States to Miami from Cuba in order to monitor the activities of terror groups that had inflicted life loss, property loss on Cuba over the last ten years in the ’90s. And they were not seeking any military secrets of the United States, but they were arrested and convicted of espionage ...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1434243