Supreme Court rejects review of Cuban Five case
2009Jeff Mackler 2009-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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On June 15 the U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari (appeal for a hearing) to the Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez. As in its recent decision in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the court offered no explanation for its refusal to consider the legal and factual issues that demonstrate the innocence of these Cuban patriots, who infiltrated Miami-based reactionary terrorist organizations that had actively planned and carried out murderous attacks on Cuba.
A series of frame-up trials and hearings orchestrated by various Florida prosecutors, judges, and then federal courts—conducted in the atmosphere of lynch-mob hysteria—essentially obliterated all evidence that the Five had presented to prove that their actions were solely aimed at exposing and preventing illegal terrorist activities conducted against Cuba from American soil. During one point in the trial proceedings, the Five proposed to conduct part of the proceedings in Cuba itself so that jurors could observe and take account of the results of the essentially U.S.-encouraged, if not sponsored, terrorist attacks. Their request was denied.
The Five, through official representatives of the Cuban government, formally reported their findings of illegal activities to U.S. authorities. Instead of prosecuting the guilty, U.S. officials sought to punish the innocent. The world’s leading purveyor of terror, the U.S. government, sought to clothe itself in the mantle of defending itself against Cuban espionage while it covered up its own complicity with the murderous acts perpetrated against the people of Cuba.
One of the Five was charged with complicity with murder because he had informed the Cuban government that U.S.-based airplanes piloted by armed anti-Cuban thugs were planning illegal flights over Cuban territory. Despite repeated Cuban government complaints to U.S.
Christian Veron / Reuters officials regarding the violation of their airspace, the provocative flights continued and after a final warning, one of the planes was shot down by the Cuban Air Force and its pilot perished.
Years later, complicity with “murder” was included in the mountain of manufactured charges hurled at the Charlie Riedel / AP (Left) Irma Gonzalez, daughter of Cuban Five prisoner Rene Gonzalez, while attending the World Youth and Students’ Festival in Venezuela in 2005.
Cuban Five. The Five have already served 10 years in prison and face long-term vindictive sentences, including decades of imprisonment.
The Five’s Supreme Court appeal was endorsed by 10 Nobel Prize winners, hundreds of elected officials throughout the world, and by noted jurists, professional bodies, and a broad range of academic, cultural, faithbased, and human rights organizations. Amnesty International has condemned the brutal treatment by prison officials of the Five, who have been incarcerated in prisons scattered across the U.S. and frequently have been subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and denied visits by their families.
The five Cubans, justifiably considered heroes by the Cuban people, posed no threat to the United States or to any U.S. citizen. Ricardo Alarcon, President of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, immediately commenting on the Supreme Court’s decision properly proclaimed, “The struggle must be multiplied until the U.S. government is forced to put an end to this monstrous injustice and restore freedom to Gerardo, Ramon, Antonio, Fernando, and Rene.”
The Five are represented by prominent human rights attorney Leonard Weinglass and by other attorneys who have labored long and hard for their release and freedom. Based on new evidence proving their innocence, plans are underway to file a second appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. This will be accompanied by renewed efforts by U.S. and worldwide organizers of their struggle for freedom to mobilize broad public support for their ongoing quest for justice and freedom.
For further information on the case, google the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. n