BBC News Online.
Friday, 14 December, 2001, 05:11 GMT
A second Cuban spy has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Florida
court, one day after the spy ring's leader received the same sentence.
Ramon Labanino, 38, was found guilty of spying for Cuba in June, accused of
trying to infiltrate two US military bases in south Florida.
Three other members of the group are awaiting sentencing.
Cuba's President Fidel Castro has lashed out at the sentences, denying the
men were a threat to the United States.
"These boys are five heroes, and they've treated them with incredible
brutality," he said.
Cuba claims the five were in the US to collect information about Cuban exile
groups' planning attacks on Cuba.
Speaking before his sentencing, Labanino said: "Cuba has the right to
defend herself against terrorist attacks."
'Unjust'
Labanino, a Cuban intelligence major, accused US authorities of threatening
potential defence witnesses to keep them from testifying. He also accused the
FBI of allowing exiled Cubans in Miami to carry out attacks on Cuba.
"This sentence could not be more ironic or unjust," he said.
Labanino took charge of the spy ring when its leader, Gerardo Hernandez, was
out of the country.
The spies never got hold of any classified information about the US.
Hernandez's sentencing on Wednesday led to angry reactions in Havana, with
commentators on state-run television calling the sentence "despicable".
The BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Havana says the sentencing of Hernandez is
likely to plunge relations between Cuba and the US to a new low just at a time
when they had seen a slight improvement after more than 40 years of animosity.
Hernandez was the only one of the five charged with murder conspiracy, which
related to the deaths of four members of the Cuban exile group Brothers to the
Rescue.
Their planes were shot down by Cuban jet fighters in international airspace
while patrolling the sea for Cuban refugees in 1996.
Prosecution lawyers said Hernandez knew a plane would be attacked because he
had advised two men who had infiltrated the group not to fly during a four-day
period.
Rallies
The five men - three Cuban intelligence officers and two US citizens -
acknowledged before the trial began that they were acting on orders from the
Cuban Government.
The government in Havana had launched a campaign on behalf of the five men,
organising huge political rallies around the country to denounce their
detention.
Their faces - portrayed on t-shirts and posters - have become familiar to
many ordinary Cubans. | 
