Declaration Adopted by Cuban Parliament During the First Ordinary Session of the 7th Legislature Held at the Convention Center in Havana july 11th Presided Over by President Raul Castro Ruz
When on 9 August 2005, a panel of three judges of the Atlanta Court of Appeal unanimously ruled to revoke the sentences and order a new trial of The Five Cuban anti-terrorists jailed in the United States, on the grounds that Miami was not an acceptable trial venue, it seemed that at last the American legal system was going to do justice, in this lengthy process full of arbitrary measures and manipulation.
A year later, the Court en banc handed down a decision without precedent in American legal history, finding against the ruling of its three judges, legitimizing the Miami trial and again referring the case back to the Panel for consideration of the other matters challenged by the defense.
On 4 June this year, after a 22-month wait, the Panel of three judges rejected almost all the appeal arguments, describing them as "lacking in merit", and confirmed the guilty verdicts passed on The Five Cuban anti-terrorists, as well as two of the sentences - those of René González (15 years) and Gerardo Hernández (two life sentences plus 15 years).
It also revoked three of the sentences: those of Ramón Labañino (life imprisonment plus 18 years), Antonio Guerrero (life imprisonment plus 10 years) and Fernando González (19 years), referring these back to the Miami Court for review by the same judge, Joan Lenard, who imposed extreme penalties now declared contrary to law by the superior Court. In identifying errors in the sentences for 'conspiracy to commit espionage', the judges agreed, ten years on, with the view expressed by government itself in the person of the Secretary of Defense at the start of the trial: that none of the information gathered by The Five was secret or prejudicial to the interests of US national security.
The 2-1 decision to confirm the sentence on Gerardo for 'conspiracy to commit murder' ignores the admission of the Prosecution at the trial and during the Appeal Court hearing that this charge had not been demonstrated and that "In the light of the evidence presented" this constituted an "insurmountable obstacle" which would "probably result in the failure of this indictment". The dissenting opinion of Judge Kravitch in the Panel was that the government had adduced no evidence to support the charge and that the sentence should not be confirmed.
The 99-page decision was drawn up by Judge William Pryor, appointed by the Court to the Panel in 2007. Using language tainted with anti-Cuba prejudice, it explicitly takes the government's side, even changes facts mentioned by the same Panel in favor of the defendants in its earlier decision and manipulates other facts forming part of the case file.
President Bush's appointment of Pryor as a federal judge was highly controversial, given the latter's ultra right-wing attitudes. It provoked condemnation in important sections of American political life and public opinion, alarmed by the appointee's extreme and mistaken legal views, which threatened to undermine the ability of the federal justice system to defend rights under the Constitution. His appointment was endorsed by the Senate with 45 senators voting 'no', under an arrangement negotiated by the now Republican presidential candidate, John McCain.
It is notable that this decision was announced during the presidential election campaign, and at a time when Washington, in breach of international anti-terrorism conventions, is intensifying maneuvers designed to afford permanent protection (including denying his extradition to Venezuela) of the known, self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles - an escapee from a Venezuelan prison, who was tried for the destruction in flight of a Cuban civil aircraft with 73 people on board.
Our five patriots have now served nearly 10 long years of cruel and unjust imprisonment, subjected to inhuman punishments, deprived of regular family visits and in two cases of any visit by their wives. They are imprisoned merely for being Cubans who struggled against the terrorist groups based in the south of Florida under the protection of the US authorities.
The National Assembly of the People's Power, identifying with the justified outrage of the entire Cuban people and the families of our Five comrades, condemns this absurd decision and the constant manipulation marking this arbitrary process. In this context, it welcomes and supports the Declaration and agreements adopted by the meeting of parliamentarians from 15 Latin American countries and the Caribbean, held in Panama on 7 and 8 July 2008, and calls upon parliaments the world over to join this initiative and take further steps to securing the release of our five compatriots
National Assembly of the People's Power
of the Republic of Cuba
