Vol. 73/No. 6      February 16, 2009

Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González have been locked up since September 1998. The five 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 the five 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 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 12-judge court overturned that ruling, while allowing for appeal on other points. The court upheld their convictions again on September 2 last year.

The appeal focuses on three main questions: 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.

It also takes up “improper” statements by the prosecutor during the trial, including saying that the jurors would be abandoning their community unless they convicted “the Cuban sp[ies] sent to … destroy the United States.”

In spite of the history of government collusion in Miami with organizations that oppose the Cuban Revolution, attempts to intimidate those who express a point of view on Cuba different from those groups, and extensive bias about the case in the Miami press, Judge Joan Lenard in 2001 refused to move the trial to a different city.

The 11th Circuit Court in 2006 ruled that all this was irrelevant and that the venue did not need to be changed unless it was “virtually impossible” to get a fair trial.

Richard Klugh, the attorney for Fernando González, said in a phone interview from Miami that the case is not just of importance to the five, but affects everyone’s right to a fair trial. “It’s a fundamental right to have a trial where the deck is not stacked against you,” he said.

According to Klugh the Supreme Court will decide in May “at the earliest” whether or not it will hear the appeal. If the court does not hear the case, the five will still be able to file habeas corpus motions in federal district court.

New Year’s messages from each of the five noted the growing international support for their release. “Our case is more and more known throughout the world, and more voices are joining the demand that we be freed,” wrote Fernando González.
 
 
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Redouble efforts to free Cuban 5!  
 
 
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