Irish National Campaign seeking Justice for the Miami Five

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday November 14, 2002 14:06 by pat c - Free THE MIAMI Five freethefive at eircom dot net 282 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3 087 - 6182124

WHO ARE THE MIAMI FIVE? Five Cubans who were trying to stop Miami based terrorist groups from carrying out violent actions against the people of Cuba. They were found guilty of charges ranging from murder to espionage by a court in Miami which relied on the evidence of convicted terrorists. All are innocent of the charges brought against them. Extensive intimidation of jurists by these same terrorists was a feature of the trial. They are currently appealing their convictions.

Free THE MIAMI Five

Irish National Campaign seeking Justice for the Miami Five

WHO ARE THE MIAMI FIVE?
Five Cubans who were trying to stop Miami based terrorist groups from
carrying out violent actions against the people of Cuba. They were found
guilty of charges ranging from murder to espionage by a court in Miami
which relied on the evidence of convicted terrorists. All are innocent of
the charges brought against them. Extensive intimidation of jurists by
these same terrorists was a feature of the trial. They are currently
appealing their convictions.

CAMPAIGN AIMS
The release and exoneration of the five victims of this obvious miscarriage
of justice.

CAMPAIGN DEDICATION
The campaign is dedicated to the memory of the 3,478 Cubans killed and
2,099 maimed at the hands of US-based terrorists groups since 1959.

CONTACTS
Campaign Chairperson: Eleanor Lannigan

POST: 282 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3

PHONE: 833 9766, 087 - 6182124

E-MAIL: freethefive@eircom.net

WEB SITE: http://freethefive.org

CAMPAIGN UPDATE  - 13 November 2002-11-13

Human rights attorney, Leonard Wineglass, lodges a motion for a retrial of
the Miami Five

Request for New Trial in Different Venue: New Evidence Found of Serious
Violations

(Double click on heading to see full text for link to segments of November
12th telephone press conference given by attorney Leonard Weinglass on
violations discussed below)

Leonard Weinglass, Antonio Guerrero's lawyer, has filed a motion in the
Miami Court that tried the Cuban Five to rule out its previous verdict and
to hold a new trial in a venue outside of that city.

The principal issue on which his motion is based is the malicious behavior
of the Florida Attorney General's Office as well as presiding Judge Lenard
in handling the original petition of the defense, which had been requested
on several occasions since January 2000, that the trial should be held
outside of Miami-Dade county.

The Florida Attorney general's Office was tenaciously opposed to a change
of venue for the trial of the five Cubans. However, a year later on June
25, 2002, the same Attorney General's Office, when under accusation in a
civil lawsuit (Ramírez vs. Ashcroft), requested a change of venue using the
very same factual and legal grounds that it had previously rejected in
relation to the case of the Cuban Five.

The legal precedent used in both cases was the same one: Pamplin vs. Mason
in 1968.

When it was used by one of the Cubans, Antonio Guerrero, the Florida
Attorney General's Office argued that it was inapplicable in his case
because Miami-Dade is an "urban center" that is "extremely heterogeneous"
and "politically non-monolithic" with "great diversity". For these reasons,
it stated, it was possible to hold a fair and impartial trial free of
"external influences" in Miami.

When it found itself on the defense in the Ramirez case, however, the same
Attorney General's Office pointed out that in regards to Cuba Miami-Dade
county is a place where there exists "deep-rooted feelings and prejudices"
that will make it "virtually impossible" for a fair and impartial trial to
be heard.

As far as Judge Lenard is concerned, she committed several violations that
contributed to depriving the defendants their basic rights. In her
treatment of the testimony of Dr. Moran, an expert employed by the court at
the request of the defendants, she violated the ex parte nature of that
request by wrongly communicating it to the Florida Attorney General's
Office; she hid the negative history that existed in her professional
relation with Dr. Moran; she delayed and manipulated the payment for his
services; she rejected his work with superficial and false arguments and
manipulated his data; and finally refused the request for a change of venue
employing in her decision criteria that ignored or contradicted federal law.

The motion, submitted before the Miami Court demanding a new trial,
analyzes the violations of the Florida Attorney General's Office and Judge
Lenard, and includes several attachments with documents and affidavits that
prove the fairness of the petition and the need for a new trial of the five
Cubans outside Miami-Dade county, based upon this newly discovered evidence
as well as in the interests of justice.

For more information (in English) visit the official Miami Five website
http://www.antiterroristas.cu/

ENDS.

For more information contact Eleanor Lannigan: 087 - 618 2124, Simon
McGuinness: 087   236 0234 or Micheline Sheehy Skeffington: 01   490 6621