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CUBAN 5 WIN NEW TRIAL!
A victory for Cuba, the heroic five prisoners of imperialism and all people fighting in defense of self-determination for oppressed nations!
This is a historic victory for the Cuban 5, for Cuba
and for all oppressed people following the example of
Cuba in the struggle against imperialism.
It is also a victory for the Free the Cuban 5
Committees across the globe, including the Free the
Cuban 5 Committee Vancouver. *Please see below for a
backgrounder on the case of the Cuban 5 and on the
struggle that the Free the Cuban 5 Vancouver committee
has been taking on in defense of these revolutionary
heros and the fight against US terror.
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Breaking News - Cuban Five Win a New Trial!
Announcement from the National Committee to Free the
Cuban Five
Today, August 9, after more than one year of weighing
the evidence, the 11th Circuit Court of a Appeals
vacated the trial court's ruling against the Cuban
Five and ordered a new trial with a change of venue.
This is a sensational victory for the Five, the Cuban
people, and the international people's movement that
supports them! The Five will now receive a new trial
in a place other than Miami. This blow to the U.S.
government undeniably was made possible by the hard
work and growing support of progressive,
justice-loving people in the U.S. and all over the
world.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is
holding a telephone press conference today with the
Five's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, the coordinator of
the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Gloria
La Riva, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Coordinator, Brian
Becker, and other activists and legal experts to
discuss this landmark victory. We will send more
information as soon as we have it. In the meantime,
call 323-464-1636 with questions.
The Five are one big step closer to freedom. Let's
continue the struggle and ensure total victory. Free
the Cuban Five!
U.S. Hands Off Cuba!
Volverán! They will return!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
For more info call 323-464-1636 or e-mail
freethefivela@yahoo.com.
The convictions of the Cuban Five have been overturned
by the federal appellate court in Atlanta, Georgia.
The request for change of venue has been granted and
the case is being sent back for retrial OUTSIDE MIAMI.
This is what the defense campaign has always sought
There will be a news conference in San Francisco
at the offices of FREE THE FIVE at 10:00 AM today.
Speakers:
Gloria LaRiva, Free The Five
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for Gerardo Hernandez
Richard Klugh, Attorney from Public Defenders Office
Miami, Florida.
More details as soon as we have them.
NOTE THIS FROM ATTORNEY LEONARD WEINGLASS
During the trial, the attorneys for the Five requested
a change of venue from Miami to another city five
times. The judge denied each request. In December
2001, two of the Five were sentenced to life in
prison, one to 19 years, and one, to 15 years. Gerardo
Hernandez received two life terms.
Why is it not possible for Cuban nationals like the
Five to receive a fair trial in Miami ? What role do
anti-Cuban terrorists play?
Miami is the one city in the US where the Five
certainly could not receive a fair trial. There are
approximately 650,000 Cubans who live there in exile.
They control the local press and the media, they
occupy the public offices, and they are the major
business figures in the area. These individuals and
institutions are highly influential, and they all have
one thing in common: they take a hard line on Cuba .
Miami is a different place than
every other city in the US . A portion of the exile
community has engaged in terrorism against Cuba for
decades. Violence against Cuba is heralded in small,
but vocal, circles in Miami . For instance, in Miami ,
the terrorist Orlando Bosch walks the streets a free
man. The US Justice Department once labeled Bosch the
most dangerous terrorist in the Western Hemisphere .
He was responsible for bombing a Cuban passenger
airline in mid-flight in 1976, killing all 73
passengers on board. Hard-line exiles
and their supporters play a large role in shaping
public opinion and debate in Miami . To try the Five
in Miami was a clear violation of their right to have
a trial free of outside influences that were rejudiced
against them. The venue of the trial should have been
moved out of Miami to another location.
DETAILS
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W23F3249B
VOLVERAN! They will return!
Free The Five!
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Tuesday, August 9, 2005 · Last updated 10:04 a.m. PT
Cuban agents to get new trial
By JOHN PAIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MIAMI -- A federal appeals court threw out the
convictions and life sentences of five accused Cuban
spies Tuesday, ruling that they did not receive a fair
trial because of community prejudice and extensive
publicity.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new trial after agreeing
with the arguments of defense attorneys about the 2001
convictions. None of the jurors was Cuban, but the
defense argued that prejudice against Fidel Castro and
his communist government runs high in Miami.
Federal prosecutors had no immediate comment on the
court's decision.
Also overturned was the murder conspiracy conviction
of ringleader Gerardo Hernandez. He was also convicted
for his role in the deaths of four Cuban exiles shot
down by Cuban MiGs in international airspace in 1996,
an event that sparked widespread condemnation.
All five Cubans were convicted in June 2001 of serving
as unregistered agents of a foreign government.
Evidence showed that two of them targeted U.S.
military installations from Key West to Tampa and the
ring spied on Cuban exiles.
The five admit being Cuban agents, but said they were
spying on "terrorist" exile groups opposed to Castro,
not the U.S. government. The defense said the agents'
primary mission was to thwart extremist exiles who
supported terrorism in Cuba, including a string of
Havana bombings that killed one tourist and injured 12
others in 1997.
The five were the only ones who went to trial after
they were indicted in 1998 as part of the 14-member
Wasp Network.
Cuba has made the five a cause celebre, featuring them
on a Web site and issuing a CD of one spy's jailhouse
poetry set to music. Free the Five committees were set
up in several countries.
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Backgrounder on Cuban 5
FIRE THIS TIME NEWSPAPER
ISSUE #25 AUGUST 2005
www.firethistime.net
Free the 5 Cuban Anti-Terrorist Heroes from US Jails!
End the Illegal & Criminal Imprisonment of the Cuban
5!
By Ian Beeching
In this era, where terror is a prominent tool of
imperialist powers, and where independence is
intolerable to them, five Cubans stand in prisons
across the US as heroes of all working and oppressed
people in the world. After decades of terror against
the Cuban people instigated by terrorist groups
harbored by the United States and its agencies like
the CIA, the Cuban government decided it had to act.
Between 1994 and 1995, Cuba sent five unarmed men,
Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramone Labanino,
Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez on a mission to
infiltrate and expose Miami-based terrorist groups
such as Alpha 66, Omega 7, Brothers to the Rescue and
Cuba America National Foundation, the financial
backbone of all anti-Cuban terrorist groups. These
groups are responsible for hundreds of terrorist
attacks, which have taken the lives of thousands of
Cubans.
The list of atrocities committed by these groups is
long. They include the bombing of hotels in Cuba,
assassinations, the spreading of disease, sabotage and
attacks against Cuba supporters in the US such as the
bombing of the Lincoln Center in 1978 after a Cuban
ballet. One of the most horrendous attacks was the
bombing of a Cuban airliner, which took the lives of
73 people in 1976. The Cuban 5 were valiantly
struggling against this terror, putting themselves and
their loved ones in mortal danger throughout the
process.
In 1998, after having gathered sufficient evidence to
expose the terrorists, Cuba released all the
information that the Cuban 5 had gathered to the FBI.
Immediately following this, the Cuban 5 were arrested
and put in solitary confinement for 17 months. It was
not until 2001 that these men were convicted. After a
seven-month show trial (one of the longest in American
history), the Cuban 5 were sentenced to between 15
years and double life, each in a separate
maximum-security prison, barred from ever seeing their
families.
Recently, a United Nations working group declared the
detention of the Cuban 5 as arbitrary and against
international law. The decision was made on the basis
that the five were not granted access to all the
evidence against them, that the trial was partial and
that the legal process was in violation of treaties
that the United States had signed. This is a
tremendously important decision to the case of the
Cuban 5 and will be invaluable in the coming appeals
process.
Another important development is the publishing of a
book on the case of the Cuban 5 in the United States.
The book is called Superpower Principles: US Terrorism
Against Cuba. At a time when all information on
anti-Cuban terrorism is overtly suppressed by the
international media, this book will play a pivotal
role in informing people on the case of the Cuban 5.
The book can be purchased at most major bookstores.
In Canada, it is our human duty to support the five
Cuban heroes in US jails. On July 26th, the Vancouver
chapter of the Free the Cuban 5 Committee joined with
hundreds of people at the celebration of the beginning
of the Cuban revolution organized by Vancouver
Communities in Solidarity with Cuba. At this event,
the Free the Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver presented the
Vancouver premiere of the documentary "Mission Against
Terror," a film exposing America's terrorist war
against Cuba through the case of the Cuban 5.
With over 2000 signatures collected by Free the Cuban
5 Committee-Vancouver demanding the immediate release
of all five Cubans imprisoned in American jails, we
call on all people concerned with justice and dignity
to stand in solidarity with the Cuban 5 and sign the
petition, which can found at
www.vancubasolidarity.com, or to email
cuban5_van@yahoo.com to join the campaign in
Vancouver.
NO TO US-SPONSORED TERRORISM AGAINST CUBA,
FREE THE CUBAN 5!
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