Posada Carriles: Unusual Sentence, Affirms Cuban Antiterroris

Posada Carriles: Unusual Sentence, Affirms Cuban AntiterrorisHavana, Apr 12. -Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban antiterrorists imprisoned in the United States, described as unusual the complete acquittal of international criminal Posada Carriles.

What took place in El Paso, Texas was a theatrical trial of Posada Carriles, for lying to immigration authorities, Guerrero said.

However, he emphasized in a message that circulated Sunday among hundreds of friends in the world, the Cuban Five clearly know what it is to have a trial with a 12-person jury in the United States.

Guerrero, re-sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison on October 13, 2009 by a South Florida district court, questioned what would be done with "everything that was shown there (in El Paso)."

Arguments put forward during the trial proved the complicity of Posada Carriles in terrorist actions against Cuba in 1997, including one attack that killed Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo.

Several questions remained open, said Guerrero, who wondered whether the U.S. government would dare to appeal the ruling, which was "not against a liar but a terrorist."

In that sense he questioned whether Washington would put all of its power toward reverting the verdict, as it did in the case of the Cuban Five, when it rejected the unanimous verdict of an Atlanta court in August 2005.

At that time, the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, Georgia revoked the sentences of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez,and ordered a new trial outside of Miami.

Hernández, Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González, are serving unjust, arbitrary sentences that added up to 99 years and two life terms.

They were arrested in September 12, 1998 for warning about criminal plans against Cuba organized by right-wing extremist groups based in the United States.

An important revelation was made in El Paso when a Department of Homeland Security official admitted that she had asked prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller in 2005 to bring charges against Posada for his crimes, but that Heck Miller refused.

Heck Millar was the same prosecutor who demanded the maximum penalties for the Cuban Five when they were tried in 2001. (Prensa Latina)