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FROM
CUBA
Cuba's
defiance upsets defense
Lawyers decry Cuba's defiance of a
federal magistrate's order to let defense
witnesses fly to the United States to testify
in a plane hijacking trial.
By Cara Buckley, cbuckley@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Nov. 19, 2003.
Defense lawyers in a Cuban hijacking case,
angry at the Cuban government's willingness
to let witnesses for the prosecution --
but not the defense -- fly to the United
States to testify, will ask a judge today
to throw out the case or bar the prosecution's
official Cuban witnesses.
The lawyers represent four of six Cuban
men accused of hijacking a plane by knife-point
from Havana to Key West on March 19.
The 37 passengers and crew were unharmed.
Three weeks ago, Magistrate Judge John J.
O'Sullivan ordered the U.S. government to
ask Cuba to let witnesses travel to the
United States to testify for the defense,
an unprecedented request, after defense
lawyers said they were thwarted from conducting
crucial interviews on the island in August.
At the magistrate's behest, the defense
supplied the government a list of witnesses:
six to eight friends, family members and
political acquaintances of the defendants.
But on Friday, the defense learned that
Cuba would not let defense witnesses leave
the island, even though members of the flight
crew will reportedly be allowed to fly to
the Keys to testify for the prosecution.
''This is not a level playing field,''
said Mario S. Cano, who represents one of
the accused hijackers, Eduardo Mejía.
"American justice is being dictated
by Cuban whims.''
Calls to the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington, D.C., were not returned Tuesday.
Matt Dates, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's
office, declined to comment.
The defense plans to call for an emergency
status conference with U.S. District Judge
James Lawrence King, who will oversee the
trial, ''to let him know things are hitting
the fan,'' Cano said.
King could also respond to the defense's
motion by letting the trial proceed without
the defense witnesses' testimony or by ordering
the defense to return to the island to collect
depositions.
Defense lawyers said that if depositions
were ordered, they would push to conduct
them in a secure area in the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana.
''You can't get an unfettered answer from
a witness who is fearful of his well-being,
with a Cuban official hanging over their
shoulder,'' Cano said.
Cano was part of a trio of lawyers who
flew to Havana and the Isle of Youth in
August to interview witnesses and see the
airport where the purported crime began.
Though the lawyers had obtained permission
from the Cuban government to conduct the
trip, they said in court papers their flight
to the Isle of Youth was delayed by nine
hours. When they finally arrived, they said
they were detained in a VIP lounge for three
hours before returning to Miami.
The politically charged trial is set to
start Dec. 1 in Key West's federal courthouse.
Cuba has accused the U.S. of being too soft
on hijackers, thus encouraging the crime.
The alleged March 19 skyjacking was followed
by a second skyjacking and a botched ferry
hijacking that resulted in three ringleaders
being executed by a Cuban firing squad.
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