Vol. 75/No. 36      October 10, 2011

González’s attorney Philip Horowitz explained in a phone interview September 27 that the conditions of González’s release, including where he will live, are in the hands of the U.S. Probation Office.

“We are currently considering whether to request of Judge Joan Lenard that she reconsider her decision or file an appeal with a higher-level court,” Horowitz recently told Prensa Latina news agency.

In recent weeks, the high-stakes battle to win the release of all five Cubans has received unusual public attention.

During a September 7-14 trip to Havana, Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico, presented a White House offer to waive probation for González in exchange for agreement by the Cuban government to release Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba for distributing sophisticated satellite equipment as part of a covert State Department operation to undermine the Cuban government.

Cuba rejected Richardson’s proposition after he described Gross to the press as a “hostage” of Cuba and arrogantly vowed to stay in Cuba until he met Gross. “Cuba is a sovereign country which does not accept blackmail, pressure or posturing,” stated Josefina Vidal of Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. Judge Lenard’s decision not to waive her instruction that González serve his probation in the U.S. came two days after Richardson’s trip. González’s request had been sitting on her desk since February.

In an interview with New York Times editors and reporters published September 23, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded to questions concerning the release of Gross saying, “I can tell you the agenda submitted [for discussion] to the U.S. government—and I reiterate here it is still on the table—included the topic of the Cuban Five, although we understand that as it is an element related to justice, it is also of a humanitarian character.”

“I do not see any way in which we can move on toward a solution of the Mr. Gross case but from a humanitarian point of view and on the basis of reciprocity,” Rodríguez added.

The Cuban Five were arrested in September 1998, charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and in the case of one of them, Gerardo Hernández, conspiracy to commit murder, and handed unusually long prison terms for their convictions—frame up aside. While awaiting trial, they were subjected to almost 17 months of solitary confinement. Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández, have been denied the right to see their husbands—González for more than 11 years and Hernández since his incarceration.

In an earlier interview with the Militant, René González’s defense attorney Horowitz stressed that defendants with dual citizenships, like González who is both a U.S. and Cuban citizen, are often allowed to serve their parole outside the United States.

González has offered to renounce his U.S. citizenship following his release if there were agreement he would be allowed to return to Cuba that same day.
 
 
Related articles:
Gov’t-paid journalists stoked bias in Cuban 5 trial
Cuban 5: For a world free of death penalty  
 
 
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