Global Free the Cuban 5 Activities
HAVANA TIMES — September 12 marks the fourteenth year since the Cuban Five were jailed in the United States. The international committee that supports their release has convoked activities in numerous countries including several in the United States itself. Click here tor the schedule and more information.
Toronto’s event isn’t listed on the website. Highly recommended for anyone in the Toronto area:
PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL AND ASSEMBLY ON THE CUBAN FIVE
Toronto , Ontario, Canada
September 21 – 23, 2012
Participants to the Peoples’ Tribunal and Assembly on the Cuban Five are coming from the USA,
the UK, Cuba, and Canada. A press conference where Tribunal participants will be present is called for Friday, September 21, 11:00 a.m., at the Metro Hall, 55 John Street (south of King), room 303.
From Cuba:
1. Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five. Perez, who lives in Cuba, has not been allowed a U.S. visa for the last thirteen years of her husband’s imprisonment despite repeated attempts. Her husband is serving two life sentences plus fifteen years in a maximum security prison. The most serious charge against him was conspiracy to commit murder, a charge for which there was no evidence and which the prosecuting attorney wished to withdraw for lack of evidence at his trial. The judge refused to withdraw the charges. In this most complex trial to that date in U.S. judicial history, the jury asked no questions for clarification and found all Five Defendants guilty on all counts.
2. Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramón Labañino, one of the Cuban Five. His life sentence was vacated and replaced by a sentence of thirty years. A three-judge appeals court had requested a retrial but in an unprecedented move the Prosecution asked for all the judges on the appeals court panel to review the case and 3-judge panel decision was overturned; the retrial never happened. Sentences were vacated in three of the five cases and the same judge who passed the original sentences reduced Labanino’s life sentence to thirty years in prison.
3. On October 6, 1976, the Cubana airliner of passenger flight 455 exploded from a bomb set by two persons working with Luis Posada Carriles, the mastermind of this horrendous action. Seventy-three passengers aboard lost their lives including the gold medalists of Cuba’s fencing team that had just concluded their competition at Games in Caracas. Posada Carriles continues to live freely in Florida. A representative from the Cuban education community will speak on behalf of the relatives of the victims from that explosion, at the Tribunal and Assembly.
4. Rodolfo D’Ávalos Fernández, member of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba and a renowned human rights lawyer.
5. Dr. Raymundo Navarro, member of the National Secretariat for International Relations of the Cuban Confederation of Trade Unions (CTC), a medical doctor who is also an elected deputy to the National Assembly of the People’s Power (Parliament of Cuba).
6. Esperanza Luzbert, Director, North America, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
7. Other representatives from Cuba will be present.