“From start to finish, the proceedings were tainted, corrupt, null and void, vindictive. Every right of the accused to ‘due process of law’ was flouted.”
—Dr. Rodolfo Dávalos Fernández
Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labiñino, Rene Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez, and Antonio Guerrero, five Cuban revolutionaries living in the United States were convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami in 2001 on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit a crime against the United States, and attempted murder. They were sentenced to harsh terms ranging 15 years to double life plus 15 years in federal prison.
Their “crime”? Keeping the government of Cuba informed of the activities of counter-revolutionary terrorist groups in Miami whose unbroken record of violent attacks on Cuba and supporters of the Cuban Revolution begins in the 1960s and continues to this day.
In United States vs. the Cuban Five, Cuban jurist Rodolfo Dávalos Fernández reviews every aspect of the U.S. government’s prosecution of the five men in the light of U.S. and international law, legal tradition and procedures. |
