Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 11, 2014 News
The first of the five Cubans prisoners to be released will testify in London this week, according to President of the Guyana Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) Haleem Khan.
US author, Alice Walker, will join the first of the ‘Miami Five’ also known as the ‘Cuban Five’ to be freed.
Gonzalez has chosen Britain as the destination of his first international visit after serving almost 15 years in a US prison. Gonzalez is one of five Cubans, known in Britain as the ‘Miami Five,’ who were arrested by the FBI in Miami in 1998. They were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage for infiltrating and monitoring Florida-based groups responsible for terrorist attacks against Cuba.
Khan said although the information they collected was passed on to the US authorities no action was taken but to arrest the five.
“The circumstances surrounding their controversial trial including the payment of journalists by the US government to write prejudicial articles to influence the jury was being re-examined by more than 20 witnesses at an International Commission of Inquiry into his Case which took place at the Law Society on 7-8 March,.” Khan underscored.
Speaking from Havana this week, Mr Gonzalez said: “Our case has been one of the least reported in US legal history despite being one of the biggest and despite involving issues as important as terrorism, espionage and the relations between two neighbouring countries which have been enemies for more than 50 years. I look forward to testifying at the Commission in London as I think it will be a fundamental step in breaking the wall of silence around the case and the Five.”
Victims of terrorism, including the father of the tourist killed in a hotel bombing and the daughter of a victim of the Cubana airline bomb will also appear at the Commission, alongside other special international guests including Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple and legal representatives from the US.
The resolution of this case and release and return of all five men to Cuba is considered by many international observers as pivotal to any reproach in relations between the US and Cuba.
Ricardo Alarcon, former Cuban Foreign Secretary will also be coming to Britain. He expressed his hopes for the event: “The fact is that the truth about this case is not widely known and we need to use this event to make known what the five were really doing – the non violent struggle they were engaged in against terrorism.
“We hope the Commission will encourage people to feel moved to join with us and pressure the US authorities and President Obama to free them and grant them the justice they never received in court.”
The Miami Five are five Cubans imprisoned in US jails since 1998 for trying to stop terrorist attacks against Cuba. The United Nations, Amnesty International and numerous legal, religious and human rights organisations have questioned the fairness of their trial and long sentences, and condemned the US government’s persistent refusal to grant visas to allow two of their wives to visit.
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