[NYTr] Continuing Saga of Cuban 5: "Roundtable" Reviews Aug 20 Hearing

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Granma Daily - Aug 22, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art04.html

Cuban Five Saga Continues

By ELSON CONCEPCION

In reviewing what took place Monday at the Cuban Five’s appeal hearing
in Atlanta, attorney Roberto Gonzalez said the campaign to secure their
release must continue until they return home.

Roberto, brother of Cuban Five member Rene Gonzalez, was at the hearing
where the growing support for the cause was more than evident. He spoke
Tuesday on the Cuban TV program The Round Table.

Gonzalez said the defense team did a good job in presenting its
arguments and he highlighted the presence of 73 personalities from
around the world on hand to witness the hearing.

Their presence helps break the wall of silence the US government has
tried to maintain on the Cuban Five case, said the attorney. He said
the three judge panel listened to the 27 objections lodged by the
defense that marked the improper behavior of the government in the 2001
trial against the Cubans.

"There was no information involving the national security of the United
States, nor request for information that had to do with national
defense," noted Gonzalez, "So where’s the conspiracy? There’s no
evidence."

Addressing the Round Table audience by telephone, defense attorney Paul
McKenna referred to the direct questions asked by the judges at
Monday’s hearing on the supposed proof that Gerardo Hernandez was
involved in the downing of the planes (for which he received a double
life sentence). McKenna said the prosecution had no response.

"I felt that the magistrates saw the errors committed by the
prosecution," he concluded.

Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general, was also present at the
hearing in Atlanta. He stressed by telephone the support for the Cuban
Five expressed by the presidents of major lawyers associations from
several countries, present in Atlanta, and many people from the US.

A country that wants to eradicate terrorism can not arrest the people
that are fighting against terrorism, said Clark. He further noted that
the arguments presented by the government were especially weak.

Arrested in September 1998, the Cuban Five have spent nearly nine years
in prison after a politically charged trial in Miami that broke most
established legal norms. Without presenting evidence, the prosecution
obtained a guilty verdict on espionage and conspiracy charges. Harsh
sentences were dished out against the men who had penetrated
Miami-based terrorist groups to inform on their plots against Cuba.