Fidel Castro says: "Release Cuban Five or Face Nuremberg"

Release Cuban Five or Face Nuremberg, says Fidel Castro

Havana, Aug 15 (AIN) President Fidel Castro said that true
justice in the Cuban Five case will only occur when the men -
considered national heroes on the island- are released and
return to Cuba.

During an encounter Saturday in Havana with the mothers, spouses
and children of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US for trying
to prevent terrorist attacks against the island, Fidel Castro
praised the decision made by three judge panel of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals of Appeals last Tuesday.

The judges unanimously overturned the lower court convictions.
In their 93-page ruling the court acknowledged that the Cuban
Five clearly did not and could not receive a fair trial in
Miami.

President Castro said the best thing the Bush administration
could do is immediately release the innocent Cubans. He said a
new trial would be the worse alternative for the White House,
since unlike the last trial, the entire world will be watching.
The Cuban leader said a new trial would resemble Nuremberg as
the crimes and support given by the Bush administration to
terrorists based in US territory would be part of the testimony.

The lies will be exposed said Fidel Castro, as well as the
cynicism and brutal way the five Cubans basic human rights have
been violated by Washington. He said the decision by the Atlanta
judges was an expression of the best traditions of the US
people. "The Cuban Five will return home, have no doubts about
it," he added.

While Washington continues to persecute five innocent men who
had infiltrated Miami based terrorist organizations, Fidel
Castro recalled how the Bush administration protects terrorists
like Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada, an explosives expert and mastermind behind the 1976
bombing of a Cuban airliner killing all 73 persons on board, was
also involved in several 1997 hotel bombings in Havana, numerous
assassination attempts against Cuban officials and further plots
against civilian aircraft.

Fidel challenged Washington to say if US authorities received
information on terrorist plans denounced by the Cuban Five who,
along their relatives have had to suffer much during their long
seven years in prison.

Fidel warned Cubans to mobilize against any US attempt to use
the Atlanta decision to justify the possible granting of asylum
to Posada Carriles in US territory. "The original plan was to
send him to El Salvador or anywhere else but to the country
which has the right to try him," referring to Venezuela, which
is demanding his extradition.

The Cuban President said there are two battles to wage; one is
to demand the immediate release of the Cuban Five and the other
is to demand the extradition of Posada Carriles to Venezuela.
On the day of 79th birthday, he also praised the heroic
resistance of the Cuban people against a nearly half century US
economic blockade on the island.