The endless list of illegal actions carried out against the Cuban Five begins right from the time they were interrogated for long hours without the presence of an attorney and later kept in solitary confinement for seventeen months, and now the recent decision by a panel of judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Between these events eight years have passed, in which the political manipulation of the process has been non stop. During this time, the mass media in Florida has deployed a ferocious campaign against the Five, with slander and concealing the truth from the international community as well as the inhuman conditions they have been submitted to.

The concept of ‘spies’ was reiterated constantly, provoking extreme hostility against the accused especially in Miami, the city imposed for their trial.

The silence that followed the excessive sentences served to hide, among other issues, that the mission of the Cuban Five exclusively consisted in infiltrating right wing Cuban American organizations, made up by terrorists in Miami, with the objective of discovering their plans, offering that information to the Cuban government and stopping criminal actions against Cuba and the US itself.

Up until today nobody has proven that the Cuban five were involved in political and military activities against the US Armed Forces or the country’s national defense despite the US mass media and others continuing to use the term of spies in all public references.

Only the politicalization of the process explains why the majority of the panel of judges of the Atlanta Court has a low opinion of the evaluations carried out by two specialized groups, which studied the case in depth after the trial.

This refers to the report of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, in which experts from various nations declared in May 2005 that the Five’s detention on September 12th in 1998 and their treatment in prison were arbitrary and illegal.

Added to this is the 93 page document from the panel of three judges from the 11th Circuit Court of Atlanta. This gave out details on the adverse circumstances against the accused during the trial as a result of the hostile atmosphere reigning in Miami and against the Cuban Revolution and the brutal pressure and threats on the jury by the right wing Cuban Americans in southern Florida.

The justice and rigor of the fore mentioned document and the decision to annul the Cuban Five’s conviction and conduct a new trial in another city, now revoked by ten of the twelve panel of judges, had everyone expecting a favourable outcome for the accused, despite accepting a revision of the decision.

This case is following the course established by the channels of the US legal system but faced with the obvious evidence of its political manipulation, the work of the solidarity groups with the Five must increase, particularly in the US.

The high sense of justice demonstrated on other occasions by the American people makes us think that maybe a decisive, protagonist role will finally bring justice for Rene, Gerardo, Ramon, Antonio and Fernando and their definitive return to their homeland.

Source
Cuban Agency News
La Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) es una división de la Agencia de Información Nacional (AIN) de Cuba fundada el 21 de mayo de 1974.

Cuban News Agency