50 leftwing representatives from the German Parliament or Bundestag today sent a letter to their colleagues in the United States Congress requesting their support for five Cuban prisoners incarcerated in the U.S. for fighting terrorism.
To their Excellencies, Members of the United States Congress
Washington DC 20515
United States of America
September 7, 2006
Distinguished Colleagues,
We, the undersigned representatives of the German Bundestag, come before you on behalf of five Cubans who are imprisoned in your country. Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Fernando González Llort, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labańino Salazar and René González Sehweret were sentenced to long prison terms in a trial in Miami in December 2001. They are serving their terms in different U.S. prisons.
We are following this case with great concern. The United Nations Human Rights Commission Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions has determined the following serious deficiencies in the above trial:
1. After their arrest, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Fernando González Llort, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labańino Salazar and René González Sehweret were held in jail incommunicado making it difficult for them and their defense attorneys to adequately prepare for their trial.
2. The fact that it was understood that the case affected “national security” restricted defense access to evidence, which had serious repercussions on the possibility of presenting opposing evidence to the court. Thus was sacrificed the notion of “equality of arms” between the prosecution and the defense.
3. The trial venue prevented an impartial legal process and the necessary objectivity for a fair trial. The United States Government did not oppose this extreme, although admitting it existed.
From all this and adding the length of the prison sentences imposed, the U.N. Working Group came to the conclusion that the punishment given to these five men was arbitrary according to rules established in the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights.
Furthermore, on August 9, 2005, a panel composed of three judges of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, declared the sentences of the five prisoners null and void because Miami could not guarantee them a fair and impartial trial due to the existing hostility against the Cuban political system. The panel ordered a retrial in a neutral venue. The federal prosecutor appealed and the full court of 12 judges reversed the panel’s decision on February 14 of this year.
We are disappointed by the decision adopted by the full Atlanta Appeals Court in which a new trial is deemed unwarranted. We hope that the United States Supreme Court decides to reverse this decision. In the meantime we demand the immediate release of these five men! A period of eight years in prison as a consequence of a sentence declared null and void is not only scandalously disproportionate, but also constitutes a violation of Article 9, paragraphs 3 and 4, and Article 14, paragraph 3 letter c of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, which the United States signed and ratified.
We also request that you intervene in favor of the wives of two of the men – Adriana Pérez, married to Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, and Olga Salanueva, married to René González Sehweret - so that they may be granted entry into the United States to visit their husbands before they are freed, which we trust will be soon. The right to visit is granted to them as much by U.S. legislation as by international rights. The daughter of René González has not even had the opportunity to get to know her father.
Distinguished colleagues, we would appreciate that, within your means, you support a new and fair trial in an impartial court for these five men.
Attentively,
1.-Binder Karin
2.-Bisky Lothar
3.-Bulling-Schröter Eva
4.-Bunge Martina
5.-Dagdelen Sevim
6.-Dehm Diether
7.-Breibus Werner
8.-Enkelmann Dagmar
9.-Ernst Klaus
10.-Golze Diana
11.-Gysi Gregor
12.-Heilmann Lutz
13.-Hill Hans-Kurt
14.-Hirsch Cornelia
15.-Höger Inge
16.-Hüseyin-Kanan Aydin
17.-Jelpke Ulla
18.-Keskin Hakki
19.-Leuter Michael
20.-Lötzer Ulla
21.-Menzner Dorothee
22.-Möoller Kornelia
23.-Neskovic Wolfgang
24.-Paech Norman
25.-Ramelow Bodo
26.-Reinke Elke
27.-Schäafer Paul
28.-Schneider Volker
29.-Schui Herbert
30.-Seifert Ilja
31.-Sitte Petra
32.- Spieth Frank
33.-Troost Axel
34.-Ulrich Alexander
35.-Zimmermann Sabine
36.-Hänsel Heike
37.-Knoche Monika
38.-Naumann Kersten
39.-Kunert Katrin
40.-Bluhm Heidrun
41.-Bartsch Dietmar
42.-Höll Barbara
43.-Tackmann Kirsten
44.-Gehrcke Wolfgang
45.-Jochimsen Lukrezia
46.-Lafontaine Oskar
47.-Maurer Ulrich
48.- Petra Pau, Bundestag Vicepresident
49.- Jan Korte
50.- Claus Roland
