U.S.
policy, Cubans on trial
By Cara Buckley, cbuckley@herald.com.
Posted on Sun, Nov. 30, 2003 in The Miami
Herald.
KEY WEST - The politically charged trial
of six Cuban men accused of hijacking, set
to start Monday in Key West, may prove a
litmus test for the Cuban government's charges
that the United States is too lenient on
hijackers, an accusation that prosecutors
are fighting hard to refute.
The March 19 skyjacking, allegedly accomplished
with kitchen knives, tape and a hatchet,
was followed by a second hijacking two weeks
later, and a botched hijacking of a ferry
a day after that. In response, Cuban leader
Fidel Castro accused U.S. Interests Sections
leader James Cason of encouraging dissent
on the island and charged that Cuban hijacking
suspects were treated as ''heroes'' by the
U.S. government.
U.S. Attorney Marcos Jiménez swiftly
retorted that the United States would punish
any hijacker regardless of the person's
native country. He also fought to stop any
of the defendants from being able to post
bond, but he failed despite three appeals.
The six men -- Alexis Norneilla Morales,
31, Eduardo Javier Mejía Morales,
26, Yainer Olivares Samón, 21, Neudis
Infantes Hernández, 31, Alvenis Arias
Izquierdo, 24, and Miakel Guerra Morales,
31 -- are charged with conspiracy, air piracy
and interfering with a flight crew in the
hijacking of a World War II-era DC-3 from
Cuba's Isle of Youth to Key West.
The plane, escorted by U.S. fighter jets,
landed safely and the suspects tossed their
weapons out. None of the 31 passengers or
the six crew members was hurt.
The defendants face life sentences if convicted.
The judge in the case, James Lawrence King,
ruled in mid-November that the men's attorneys
could not use Cuba's political or economic
conditions as part of their defense.
The men didn't appear to be under threat
of harm, he wrote, and did not try to leave
Cuba legally.
Moreover, he said there was no proof that
Cuba's living conditions necessitated a
hijacking. ''Many Cubans live under such
conditions, yet few hijack planes,'' King
wrote.
King's decision angered Cubans in Miami,
who said the limitation robs the trial of
its context.
''We should give them the broadest and
most expansive leeway in presenting the
facts,'' said Joe Garcia, executive director
of the Cuban American National Foundation.
"The very nature of hijackings usually
has to do with a political message that
people are trying to transmit.
ARGUING FOR CONTEXT
''If you that take away the political and
economic conditions,'' he said, "I
don't know what other types of circumstances
will exist.''
But others insist authorities are right
to treat Cuban hijackers just as they would
terrorists, especially given the anti-terrorist
tactics the U.S. government has embraced
following Sept. 11.
''The U.S. efforts to not politicize this
is commendable, and shows a recognition
for international cooperation on terrorists,''
said Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration
lawyer in Miami who is not involved in the
case. "And Cubans are going to look
very carefully at how the U.S. tries the
case in terms of getting a conviction.''
But Kurzban questioned whether South Florida
is the appropriate location to try the case.
''You have to look at what steps they are
taking to treat this as a serious prosecution,''
Kurzban said. "The fact that they're
trying these Cubans in the most heavily
populated Cuban area in the United States
suggests that they haven't gone out of their
way to seek a less biased venue for the
trial.''
There is a slim chance that the trial,
rescheduled once, may be delayed yet again
if defense lawyers can convince the court
Monday that securing testimony from witnesses
on the island is invaluable to their clients'
defense.
Defense lawyers have been pushing to fly
Cuban defense witnesses to the United States
to testify. They said they were prevented
in August from interviewing key witnesses
on the island and held by armed guards in
an airport lounge while prosecutors freely
inspected the airport in Cuba.
A magistrate ordered the U.S. government
to ask Cuba to send defense witnesses over
to testify, causing prosecutors to be concerned
that the witnesses were actually family
members who would ultimately defect.
''To use the procedures of the federal
criminal courts to allow other family members
in Cuba to join these defendants in the
United States would turn this process on
its head,'' assistant U.S. attorneys Harry
C. Wallace and John J. Delionado wrote in
court papers.
HELP FROM CUBA
Regardless, defense lawyers learned that
Cuba would allow witnesses to leave the
island to testify only for the prosecution.
Ana Jhones, one of the defendants' lawyers,
said in court papers that Castro had taken
a ''personal interest'' in the case and
met with crew members and returned passengers
in a televised round-table talk.
She asked to have the case dismissed, a
motion that magistrate judge John J. O'Sullivan
denied, saying the U.S. did everything it
could to get the Cuban nationals to testify.
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