MIAMI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A member of a spy ring that tried to infiltrate U.S. military installations in south Florida on behalf of the Cuban government was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison.
Alejandro Alonso was convicted on one count of serving as an agent of a foreign power. He had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Alonso was one of ten people arrested in September 1998 as part of what U.S. authorities called a sophisticated Cuban spy ring that targeted U.S. military installations and Cuban exile groups on behalf of the communist government in Havana.
Prosecutors said the spies intended to strike at the heart of the U.S. national security system by seeking to infiltrate the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, the military headquarters for the southern hemisphere, and the U.S. Navy's Boca Chica Naval Air Station near Key West.
Alonso and four others, whose sentencing was expected next week, pleaded guilty in the case.
Some of Alonso's relatives sat quietly behind him as U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard sentenced him to seven years in prison.
``I just want to say that I did wrong. ... I feel remorseful,'' Alonso said. ``I apologise to this court and everyone.''
The alleged leader of the spy ring, Gerardo Hernandez, was charged in a May 1999 indictment with conspiring to commit murder in connection with the Feb. 24, 1996 downing of four Miami-based planes by a Cuban fighter jet.
The planes were crewed by members of the Miami-based Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue.
Sisters of two of the pilots killed in the incident attended Alonso's sentencing.
Although Alonso was not directly involved in the plane incident, ``we believe it is all the same thing,'' said Maggie Alejandre, sister of slain pilot Armando Alejandre, said.
``They are at least partly responsible for the death of our loved ones,'' she said of Alonso and the other defendants.
19:46 01-28-00
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