[NYTr] Cuban 5 Defenese Counsels on Aug 20 Hearing

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Anti-Terroristas.Cu - Aug 21, 2007
http://www.antiterroristas.cu/

August 21, 2007

PRESS RELEASE BY DEFENCE COUNSELS OF THE CUBAN FIVE

Oral argument in the appeal of Gerardo Hernández, René González,
Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González, five Cubans
unjustly held in United States' prisons since 1998, took place before
the three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on August
20, 2007.

At the hearing, as at the two prior hearings held in March 2004 and 
February 2006, both parties -- the Government and the Defense --
asserted their arguments and responded to questions from the judges.

This hearing is one more step in the long appeal process of these five 
men since they were sentenced in 2001.  As in the past, the Government 
of the United States was once again unable to refute the arguments of 
the Defense and sustain the accusations against the five.

For its part, the Defense demonstrated irrefutably that the improper 
conduct of the Government during the entire legal process against the 
five constituted a flagrant violation of due process that influenced
the entire proceeding, primarily by the way in which the Prosecutor
invented facts that were not proven at trial, promoted a hostile
environment and manipulated the evidence and the jury.

Other key arguments of the Defense that demonstrate the arbitrariness 
of the process is lack of evidence to sustain the two main 
accusations---conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit 
murder in the first degree---and the imposition of completely
irrational and unjustifiable life sentences.  The Government itself
admitted during trial that it could not present a single secret
document to prove espionage and that it faced an "insurmountable
obstacle" to prove the charge of murder.

Throughout the tainted process the Government admitted that its real 
concern was to protect the anti-Cuban terrorist groups that operate
with total impunity in Miami and to punish those who fight against them.

Next September 12, these five men, accused of crimes they did not 
commit, will begin their tenth year in prison only because they 
attempted to protect Cuba from terrorist acts. Cuba like the United 
States and any other country of the World has a legitimate right to 
defend itself against the scourge of terrorism that has harmed so many 
victims.

We trust in the professionalism of the panel of judges and that sooner 
or later justice will prevail for Gerardo, René, Antonio, Ramón and 
Fernando.