Havana, Sept 2 (AIN) Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power (Cuban Parliament) issued a declaration Thursday calling on the world’s parliamentarians, political and social organizations, and people in general to demand the immediate and unconditional release of the five Cuban political prisoners in US jails and the extradition to Venezuela of Luis Posada Carriles, to be tried for crimes committed.

The declaration, which was published by Granma and Juventud Rebelde newspapers, states that Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez were the victims of huge injustice for having fought terrorist actions against Cuba. They have been jailed for seven years in US federal prisons, under maximum security conditions, isolated from one another and submitted to cruel treatment, which includes restrictions to family visits.

The document reads that the trial against the five Cubans exemplified the US government’s lack of ethics. It never had reason to have them arrested, nor stage such a fraudulent judicial process against them nor give them the overly harsh prison sentences they all got.

Last May 27, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the UN Human Rights Commission described the imprisonment of the five Cubans as arbitrary and illegal and called on the US administration to put an end to such an action, the declaration states.

The Cuban Parliament’s declaration recalls that on August 9, the 11th Circuit of the Atlanta Court of Appeals reversed the sentences imposed on the Cuban Five and declared null the bogus trial against them held in Miami. The document explains that the Atlanta judges considered all circumstances and antecedents of case, the development of the process and jurisprudence procedures. There is no reason for the five Cubans to continue in prison if they have not been declared guilty. They are still being detained and the US government has the moral, juridical and political obligation of releasing them immediately, without conditions, stressed the document.

The declaration says that while the US administration takes actions against the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters, it tries to prevent justice from being applied in the case of Luis Posada Carriles, a self-confessed terrorist, whose extradition request by Venezuela, has not yet been responded and is hampered by means of illegal and spurious maneuvers.

More than three months ago US government representatives took the terrorist to El Paso, Texas after he had illegally entered US territory in a secret operation that allowed him to walk freely on the streets of Miami and even give statements to the press. His case is being considered merely as a migration issue, unlike the usual violence committed against millions of undocumented workers. The purpose is to misinform public opinion and avoid Posada’s extradition to Venezuela, the document explains.

Venezuela is claiming the extradition of Posada Carriles in order to try him for the October 6, 1976 bombing in mid air of a Cubana airliner which killed the 73 people on board. Following his arrest in that country he escaped, with US support, and continued to plot several attempts against the life of President Fidel Castro as well as numerous bomb attacks against Cuban tourist centers, one of which claimed the life of a young Italian tourist in a Havana hotel.

The document states that Washington’s protection of Posada Carriles goes against UN Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted by US proposal on September 28, 2001, and against all other international conventions and accords against terrorism, and in particular the 1973 Montreal International Convention against terrorist bomb attempts.

The international community must condemn the Bush administration for its support of international terrorism, expressed in its holding of the Cuban Five in US prisons and its protection of Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch and other renowned criminals who freely walk the streets of Miami.

Bush and his irresponsible and immoral policy must be halted, for as he massacres the Iraqi people, destroys the lives of thousands of US young soldiers, he threatens the world with an endless war and limits the liberties of US citizens and turns his back on juridical and moral obligations of every State by holding the Cuban Five and protecting a well known terrorist, the declaration reads.

“Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power calls to all parliaments, political and social organizations, all women and men who dream of a better world of justice, peace and freedom to demand the immediate release of Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Rene Gonzalez and the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, so that he be tried and sentenced for his crimes, which have been unpunished until today.”, concludes the declaration of the Cuban Parliament.