|
Witness
calls Cuban hijack a sham
The reputed ringleader of an alleged
hijacking from Cuba says crew members aboard
the flight were in on the scheme.
By Cara Buckley, cbuckley@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Dec. 05, 2003 in The Miami
Herald.
KEY WEST - The accused ringleader of six
Cuban men being tried on hijacking charges
testified Thursday that the flight's copilot
and an airport guard sought him out a year
ago to help divert a Cuban airplane to the
United States and make it look like a hijacking.
''They needed me,'' Alexis Norneilla Morales
said during the federal trial's fourth day.
Norneilla said he believed "there was
not going to be any trouble; that . . .
all I had to do was walk out on the street
and not mention the others to anybody in
case they wanted to return to Cuba.''
Norneilla's account differed sharply from
earlier testimony by the pilot, technician
and steward, who said they had known nothing
of the plot and were overtaken by force.
The three have since gone back to Cuba.
Norneilla, the first defense witness, repeatedly
insisted the hijacking was staged, that
knives were taken aboard to give the semblance
of a hijacking, and that crew in the cockpit
helped unhinge the door. 'The door wouldn't
open, and I heard a voice [say] from the
other side, 'Push,' '' he said.
Norneilla, a veterinarian in Cuba, said
airport guard Gustavo Salas approached him
a year ago with plans to bring an airplane
to the United States. Norneilla said both
men lived on Cuba's Isle of Youth.
A second and third meeting took place between
Norneilla, Salas and Mikael de la Nuez,
the copilot, Norneilla said. His cousin,
Eduardo Mejias-Morales, also a defendant,
attended once, Norneilla said. He testified
that he was urged to enlist others for and
that they were instructed to get some money
to buy knives.
''What I had to do was make it look like
I was diverting the plane, because that
would be better,'' Norneilla said. "Without
the knives, nobody would've believed us.''
On March 19, the day of the alleged hijacking,
Norneilla said he arrived at the airport
and was surprised to see Salas working alongside
the plane. He denied carrying knives aboard,
saying it would have been impossible, given
the four metal detectors and security checks.
''Did you anticipate that knives were going
to be on the airplane?'' asked Stewart Abrams,
Norneilla's lawyer.
''I was anticipating that they would be
given to me on the airplane,'' Norneilla
said. "By [copilot] Mikael de la Nuez.''
The copilot, who still lives in Cuba, is
expected to testify as a defense witness
today.
Earlier in the day, however, a U.S. Border
Patrol agent, Kerry Heck, said Norneilla
told her after his arrest that the five
kitchen knives used were passed through
an airport bathroom window, hidden in the
ceiling and carried aboard in a duffle bag.
Thursday was the first time the defense
offered evidence to support their theory
that the hijacking was staged with the complicity
of crew members and airport officials, who
work for the Cuban government.
But outside of the jury's earshot, U.S.
District Judge James Lawrence King has repeatedly
said that while the defense theory might
implicate others, it would not exonerate
an act of hijacking.
|
