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Defense
attorneys accuse Castro of manipulating
hijacking trial witnesses
Ann W. O'Neill, staff writer.
Posted November 25 2003 in the Sun-Sentinel,
Florida.
Fidel Castro has "taken a personal
interest" in an upcoming federal hijacking
trial and Cuba is manipulating which witnesses
can come to the United States to testify,
a defense attorney alleged Monday in court
papers.
Lawyers involved in the case learned Nov.
14 that Cuba would permit some prosecution
witnesses to travel to Key West for the
trial. But other witnesses who could help
exonerate the accused hijackers will stay
behind, according to defense attorney Ana
Jhones, who filed the papers in federal
court in Miami.
Six Cubans are scheduled to go on trial
Monday in Key West. They are accused of
air piracy, conspiracy and interfering with
a flight crew during the March 19 skyjacking
of a Cuban DC-3 with 31 other people on
board. If convicted, they could spend 20
years to life in a U.S. prison.
According to the court papers, Castro "personally
met with, interviewed and otherwise socialized
with" potential government witnesses
-- passengers and crew members who returned
to Cuba after the hijacking.
Meanwhile, in the United States, pilot
Daniel Blas Corria Sanchez, a Communist
Party member, and steward Abilio Hernandez
Garcia, an applicant to Cuba's Communist
Youth organization, were released from Krome
detention center after the hijacking. They
have remained in the United States under
24-hour guard by Cuban government employees,
according to the court papers.
The documents state that the U.S. government
has "stood idly by" while the
Cuban government blocks access to potential
defense witnesses. A spokesman for the U.S.
Attorney's Office said prosecutors will
respond in court.
The defense attorney, who represents accused
hijacker Miakel Guerra-Morales, has filed
an emergency motion asking U.S. District
Judge James Lawrence King to dismiss the
indictment. As an alternative, she seeks
an order to allow defense attorneys to interview
witnesses in a secure, protected setting
at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
Because the Castro regime penalizes people
who make statements it considers "counter-revolutionary,"
Jhones said, witnesses otherwise will not
feel able to speak freely and their testimony
may not be reliable.
"The Cuban government has issued what
in essence is an ultimatum to the defendant,
Miakel Guerra-Morales: Come to Cuba and
interview your witnesses and take their
depositions in our presence or proceed to
trial without them," Jhones' court
papers said. If that suggested scenario
occurs, she added, the defense witnesses
would be "agreeing to a jail sentence"
or execution.
The filing is the latest step in the ongoing
defense battle over witnesses at the trial.
Earlier, defense attorneys said they were
held under armed guard for three hours at
an airport on the Isle of Youth after receiving
permission to travel to Cuba to prepare
for the trial. They said they were not allowed
to view the crime scene, or to talk to anyone.
U.S. Magistrate John J. O'Sullivan ordered
the government to assist the defense in
obtaining testimony from its Cuban witnesses.
He left open the alternative that statements
could be taken in Cuba if the witnesses
were not permitted to leave.
Jhones claims the trial will be one-sided
if the defense witnesses can't be heard.
U.S. government lawyers, meanwhile, say
they fear touchy relations could be strained
further if the defense witnesses come to
the United States and defect.
The defense papers say the situation poses
difficult questions: Can a constitutionally
guaranteed right to present a defense be
compromised by a foreign government? And,
has Cuba provided the "greatest measure
of assistance" under a treaty called
the Hague Convention for the Suppression
of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft?
No hearing date has been set, and it was
not clear Monday whether the witness controversy
would delay the trial.
Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com
or 954-356-4531.
Copyright 2003, Sun-Sentinel
Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc.
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