Cuban Antiterrorist Should Be Freed, Returned Home

Havana, Oct 5. -Relatives and friends worldwide expect on Wednesday the release from prison on Oct. 7 of Rene Gonzalez, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in the United States, and demand his return to the island.Rene's father and brother are already in U.S. territory, while his two daughters will shortly depart for that northern country, stated his mother, Irma Sehwerert, who expects a visa to travel to meet her son.

Rene will release from prison, but he is unjustly obliged to stay in the United States for three years more under a regime of supervised freedom, as established his sentence almost 10 years ago.

On September 16, Florida district court Judge Joan A. Lenard denied the motion filed by Gonzalez on February 16, 2011, requesting being allowed to travel to Cuba and reside there, instead of serving a sentence termed by jurists as an additional term.

According to U.S. lawyer Richard Klugh, to deny Rene the right to reuniting with his family after serving his sentence is an "unprecedented decision" in the history of that country.

For Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, as Rene, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino are universally known, people will learn more about this case as of Oct. 7.

The activist stated that the release of Rene Gonzalez will multiply the actions in the United States in favor of those antiterrorist fighters, who were detained on September 12, 1998 while monitoring the actions of anti-Cuban groups based in Florida, U.S.

After a rigged trial held in Miami nearly a decade ago, and despite their declared innocence and testimony in their favor given by U.S. officials, the Cuban Five were condemned to harsh sentences from 15 years to double life plus fifteen years.

Diverse voices in the world have warned of the danger to Rene to remain in U.S. soil, due to terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for the explosion in midair of a Cuban airliner in October 1976 that killed 73 people, live there. (Prensa Latina)