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Cuba
mock trial convicts militant, U.S.
Yahoo!
News.
HAVANA, 15 (AP) - Cuban law students concluded
a two-day mock trial by convicting anti-communist
militant Luis Posada Carriles and the United
States of decades of terrorism against the
government of Fidel Castro.
Delivered at a courtroom set up outside
the U.S. mission in Havana, the verdict
was a foregone conclusion. No sentence was
issued.
The communist government has long accused
the Cuba-born Posada of masterminding a
1976 bombing of a jetliner that killed 73
people and a string of 1997 Havana hotel
bombings that killed an Italian tourist
- charges he denies.
Cuban authorities were enraged when a U.S.
federal judge threw out immigration charges
against Posada last week, freeing him from
house arrest
Cuba characterizes Posada as "the
executioner" and the "best known
terrorist in the hemisphere" - phrases
repeated in the 10-page judgment against
him.
The Communist Party's youth wing organized
the event, hoping to pressure the United
States to bring more serious charges against
the 79-year-old, who has spent a lifetime
trying to undermine Castro.
"This tribunal declares the accused,
Luis Faustino Clemente Posada Carriles,
and the government of the United States
of America, guilty of all of the terrorist
acts expressed herein," said the tribunal's
black-robed president, Iala Rodriguez. To
the side of the bench was an empty seat,
presumably for Posada.
Hundreds of students and several dozen
people who testified over two days occupied
rows of plastic chairs outside U.S. Interests
Section as ocean winds howled through the
plaza.
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