Appeals process of the Cuban Five

According to procedure established by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, defense attorneys for the Cuban Five submitted documents on December 15 in response to questions posed by the court.

The U.S. Attorney has until January 13 to rebut these documents to which the defense may then offer its own rebuttal to the prosecution's arguments prior to January 27. During the week of February 13 a day will be set aside for oral arguments to be made by both sides in response to concerns or questions of the 12 judges.

Along with defense statements two amicus briefs were also presented by two important U.S. organizations: one from the National Lawyers Guild, and the other from The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The latter was also supported by The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and The National Association of Federal Defenders.

The National Lawyers Guild discusses the issue of an impartial jury and a fair trial according to the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and emphasizes the error of the Florida court in not authorizing a change of location requested by the defense for the trial, as well as the inappropriate conduct of the U.S. government during the trial.

The amicus of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers focuses on the right of those accused to receive a fair trial according to guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. This also holds particular importance for The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which is the only association of its kind in Miami-Dade County.

On Cuban TV's Round Table program, Cuban attorney Roberto González recently referred to the deliberate improper conduct of the U.S. Attorney during the entire trial and the serious errors made by the judge who did nothing to prevent this. He commented that the Atlanta court should not even have accepted the appeal by the U.S. Attorney which had obviously intentionally lied about the case, adding that the argument posited by the government in its rebuttal of a decision taken by a three-judge panel of the court on August 9 was false. In reality the court should have annulled the entire case, said the Cuban lawyer.

He recalled that the Atlanta court reversed the sentences because of "the wave of intense feelings in the community (of Miami) and the extensive publicity before and during the trial combined with improper references by the U.S. Attorney "to create a "'perfect storm'" around the Five, but never placed in doubt the honesty of the jurors. Nevertheless, the prosecution lied by arguing before the entire court that the panel judges based their decision on the fact that the 12 members of the jury were prejudiced, when in reality it
was the community that was prejudiced.

In fact, what the U.S. Attorney is attempting to do is to prolong the process at all costs, said Gonzalez. "Although innocent, our brothers may have to remain in maximum security prisons for many more years as
a result of these delaying tactics."

In recent comments to the Cuban press relating to the trial of the Cuban Five, the president of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, has stressed that the violations in the case began on the very day of their arrest in 1998: "when they should never have been brought to trial, nor even arrested" and referred to violations of the 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

"The struggle over the case of the Five should go beyond obtaining a new trial and instead turn into a fight for their immediate freedom they should not spend one more day in prison."

Alarcón brought up the decision of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions in May that, after two years of analyzing the case, determined that the trial was illegal, and also the decision of the three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that annulled the sentences imposed by the court in Miami, saying that eight experts in two different forums had rejected the violations evident in the legal process against the Five and the illegal sentences that were imposed.

The Cuban Parliament President underscored the need to continue to fight for the Five in an international campaign against this injustice, condemning the farcical trial and demanding their immediate release.