The U.S. Government rejects ruling by the UN Working Group on the Cuban Five

According to an article published by The Miami Herald on July 20, 2005, the State Department said it would not accept a ''ridiculous and perplexing decision'' made by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (Human Rights Commission) on May 27, 2005, which ruled that the detention of Cuban Five convicted in Miami was arbitrary and in violation of international law.

A senior official told The Herald the ruling was a ''politically motivated'' maneuver orchestrated by the Cuban government and added that other efforts within the U.N. to take up the case had been rejected.

''We have a number of ideas on how to respond,'' said the official, who did not give his name, but who clearly explained that he was speaking officially for the U.S. government. "We're not letting this go. A U.S. response to the panel's ruling is under way", he announced.

"It's outrageous.'' The State Department's official said the ruling calls into question the work of the U.N. panel, citing provisions that stipulate that the group provides a platform for individual complaints "not for states to use to go after other states. It's a complete perversion of the process.''

The judgment came from the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, one of several special mechanisms within the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights, took place after evaluating arguments put by both the families and the US government.

The first denounce before the Working Group was personally issued by the relatives of the relatives of the Five in Geneva on the spring of 2003. A year later they were in communication with the President of the Group, giving her their comments to the answer of the Government of the United States. The President requested them additional information, which was send. Finally, the assistant of the Working Group asked relatives for new facts, which were supplied days before the Group took its decision.

The Group considered:

• That "the trial did not take place in a climate of objectivity and impartiality which is required" and that "the Government [of the United States] has not denied that the climate of bias and prejudice against the accused in Miami persisted and helped to present the accused as guilty from the beginning." "It was not contested by the Government [of the United States] that one year later it admitted that Miami was an unsuitable place for a trial where it proved almost impossible to select an impartial jury in a case linked with Cuba."
• That "The Government [of the United States] has not contested the fact that defense lawyers had very limited access to evidence because of the classification of the case by the Government as one of national security", which "undermined the equal balance between the prosecution and the defense and negatively affected the ability [of the defense] to present counter evidence".
• That the fact that the accused "were kept in solitary confinement for 17 months" determined that "communication with their attorneys, and access to evidence and thus, possibilities to an adequate defense were weakened".
• That these "three elements, combined together, are of such gravity that they confer the deprivation of liberty of these five persons an arbitrary character" and it is "in contravention of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights".

The panel also urged the U.S. government to ''adopt the necessary steps to remedy the situation.''

The Working Group, established in 1991, includes five experts, currently from Algeria, Spain, Iran, Hungary and Paraguay.

Antiterrorist Working Group
National Assembly of People's Power