By Philip Delves Broughton in New York.
Daily Telegraph. Wednesday 25 October
2000
FIVE of the six Britons detained in Cuba for 16 days without access to
British diplomats are private detectives arrested on suspicion of spying, the
Foreign Office said last night. The sixth is a girlfriend who flew to the
Caribbean island for a holiday.
The detectives were on an assignment for the London-based security company
SIP Investigations when they attracted the attention of the Cuban authorities
because of the high-tech equipment they were using. They were arrested on Oct 9
but efforts by British Embassy officials in Havana to gain access to them "to
ensure their human rights are being protected" have been turned down.
The detectives had been hired through a firm of London solicitors to act for
the wife of a Cuban millionaire businessman who was seeking evidence to support
a divorce action against him, said a member of the team, who had returned to
London before the arrests.
The Foreign Office said last night that it would not disclose the identities
of the detained Britons until diplomatic access to them had been secured and
officials knew that their next of kin had been informed. British authorities
were first told that the six had been detained on Oct 9 but did not get written
notification until Oct 13.
Peter Hain, Foreign Office minister, said: "It is unacceptable that six
British nationals are being held in Cuba without explanation and without access.
Our charge d'affaires has demanded immediate access. If this is not forthcoming,
I will be calling in the Cuban charge d'affaires to demand an explanation.
"Their relatives have a right to know what is happening to them, they
themselves have the right to know why they are being held and the British
Government has a right to offer them consular protection."
Later, the Foreign Office said that the British charge d'affaires had been
denied access to the six in the state security prison. A spokesman said: "He
was assured that the six were in good health and that he would be granted access
to them within the next 48 hours.
"The Cuban authorities are investigating allegations that the six had
been hired in connection with a private investigation into a case of marital
infidelity involving a Cuban national for which they were using methods in
breach of Cuban law." No charges had yet been brought and the Cuban
authorities had undertaken to provide access to a lawyer.
Thousands of Britons travel to the holiday island - famed for its cigars,
colonial architecture and communist leader Fidel Castro - every year. Travel
from Britain is not restricted but Americans must obtain permission from the
American Treasury before they can travel to the island.
If the six Britons have made the mistake of crossing Castro, their fate is
bleak. Cuba's jails are notoriously filthy and overcrowded with everyone from
petty thieves to academics who spoke out against the government. The Cuban
prison guards are not known for their restraint in maintaining order.
Last month two young Britons, Rachel McGee and Michelle Malcolm, from east
London, were released from jail in Cuba after serving two years of a 15-year
sentence for drug trafficking. The Cubans called their release a "tribute
to the strength of its bilateral relationship with Britain".
Both women suffered physically in jail, losing weight and enduring stomach
problems and kidney infections. | 