Vol. 73/No. 12      March 30, 2009

Twelve friend-of-the-court briefs signed by hundreds of individuals and organizations were filed March 6 supporting the appeal submitted by attorneys for the five in January. It is the largest number of briefs ever placed before the U.S. Supreme Court requesting review of a criminal conviction, reports Granma International.

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González have been locked up since September 1998. They had been gathering information on right-wing groups of Cuban exiles based in Florida that have a history of violent attacks on Cuba with the support of Washington.

A federal court convicted them in 2001 on frame-up charges ranging from "conspiracy to commit espionage" to failing to register as agents of a foreign government. Hernández was also falsely accused of "conspiracy to commit murder."

In August 2005 a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the convictions on the basis that the five men could not get a fair trial in Miami. A year later the full court of 12 judges overturned that ruling. In September 2008 the court again upheld their convictions.

Among those signing the briefs backing the appeal are the Mexican Senate, the Panama National Assembly, 75 members of the European Parliament, 87 members from the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, 9 senators and 33 deputies of the Irish parliament, 17 senators and 138 deputies from the Brazilian National Congress, and Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland. Organizations include the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, National Conference of Black Lawyers, U.S. Mexican-American Political Association, Berlin Lawyers Association, and Asian Human Rights Foundation.

UN General Assembly president Miguel d'Escoto issued a public plea for freedom for the five Cubans in a statement before the UN Human Rights Council in early March. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has condemned their unjust imprisonment while demanding that President Barack Obama extradite CIA-trained counterrevolutionary Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela to stand trial for violent attacks against Cuba, including the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane that killed 73 people.

The Cuban Five's appeal focuses on three main issues: the refusal of the presiding judge to grant a change in venue for the trial, the disproportionate exclusion of Blacks from the jury, and the absence of any evidence for the murder charge against Hernández.

The U.S. government has until April 6 to present its brief opposing the appeal. The Supreme Court may decide whether to review the case before it recesses in June.
 
 
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