Annexe 3  Communicado en inglés mandado por el CNC

Canadian Network on Cuba
           Working in friendship and solidarity with Cuba

                             900 Dynes Rd., Apt. 1807
                               Ottawa, Ont. K2C 3L6
                                       613-225-6232
                          cnc@canadiannetworkoncuba.ca.
                          http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/

July 7, 2008

Canadian Network on Cuba Statement
Jointly with La Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba

On the initiative of Francine Lalonde, Bloc Québécois MP for La Pointe-de-l’Île and  Foreign Affairs critic, 56 Members of Parliament signed a letter demanding justice for the Five Cubans imprisoned in the United States and for their families.  In a good collaborative gesture with the Bloc Québécois, Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, organized the letter signing within the New Democratic Party.

The letter explaining the case of the Five was signed by 40 Bloc Québécois and 16 New Democratic Party MPs.  During the week of June 23-27, 2008 the letter was forwarded to the Honourable David Emerson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada with copy to Mr. Michael Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States, and Mr. David Wilkins, Ambassador of the United States to Canada.

The letter indicates that Fernando González Llort, René González Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo and Ramón Labañino Salazar, known internationally as the “Five” and imprisoned in the United States for more than 9 years, have undergone an unfair trial and conditions of detention which contravene the Constitution of the United States and international law. The letter signed by 56 MPs hinges, inter alia, on Amnesty International, on the United Nations Working Group on arbitrary detentions, which stems from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and also on a group of 110 British members of Parliament who denounced the conditions of the trial and the imprisonment. The letter also mentions that these five people are held in five separate maximum security prisons and are kept for long periods in isolation cells; two of them have been denied their right to family visits. It also states that, since the Atlanta Court of Appeal declared that the verdicts against the Cuban Five were invalid, nothing justifies their imprisonment any longer or the arbitrary situation that is extremely painful for the Cuban Five and their families.

In 1998 the Cuban government had given to the American authorities a thick report which showed that terrorist acts were being plotted on American soil by anti-Cuba groups living primarily in Miami.  The information was gathered largely from data collected by the Cuban Five who had infiltrated these groups; but rather than acting on this information, it was the Cuban Five who were arrested on September 12, 1998.

Other members of Parliament in the world have denounced the injustice made against the Five and their families, such as Karel De Gucht, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who made a statement last June 30th.

In Québec, in addition to many ordinary citizens, well-known personalities such as Claudette Carbonneau, president of the CSN, Elsie Lefebvre, Bloc Québécois Party former MP as well as 93 personalities gave their support to the Five.  In Canada, Ms. Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East, gathered signatures of other MPs from her party.  The support of the NDP MPs for the Five is added to that of the Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Students, among others. 

In October 2007 Ms. Francine Lalonde met in her office of Pointe-aux-Trembles, with Ms. Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramón Labañino, one of the Five.

The Canadian Network on Cuba and the Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba support fully the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party in this joint call for justice and add our voices to those of our MPs.  We will continue in our joint efforts to bring justice for the Five by making their case known to the public of Québec and Canada and also in collaboration with other justice seeking organizations in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

We demand justice for the Five and their families!

Contact:
Nino Pagliccia 604-831-9821; nino.pagliccia@ubc.ca

Three Attachments

Attachment 1of 3 – Letter to the Honourable David Emerson

Francine Lalonde
Députée de La Pointe-de-l’Île
Porte-parole du Bloc Québécois en matière d’affaires étrangères

December 12, 2007

The Honourable Maxime Bernier, PC, MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa

Dear Minister:

For over nine years now, five Cubans – Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González – have been in prison in the United States.  In December 2001 in Miami, following an unfair trial, they were all given heavy sentences ranging from 15 years to two consecutive life sentences.

Both the trial and the conditions in which the five men are being held violate the American Constitution and international law.  On May 27, 2005, the United Nation’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which reports to the UN Human Rights Council, concluded that the imprisonment of the “Cuban Five” was arbitrary and violated international law.  The Working Group called on the United States government to take steps to rectify the situation.

In August 2005, the Federal Court of Appeal, 11th Circuit, also ruled that the trial had been biased.  In a 93-page decision, the panel of three judges analysed the proceedings in detail, and concluded that admitted agents of the Cuban government could not expect an impartial trial in Miami.  They ordered a new trial, to be held elsewhere.  On October 31, 2005, the American government appealed this decision to the full bench of 12 judges of the 11th Circuit of the Court of Appeal. In the meantime, on February 8, 2007, more than 110 members of the British Parliament joined with more than 10,000 Britons and signed an open letter calling on the United States Attorney General, Alberto González, to release the Five.  Amnesty International has called for a new trial, saying in a letter to the State Department that it was extremely concerned about the justice of the sentences.. .

The Honourable Maxime Bernier
Minister of Foreign Affairs
December 12, 2007
Page 2

On August 9, 2006, the full bench of the Atlanta Court of Appeal overturned the 2005 decision.  They recognized the biased political climate in Miami, but ruled that the trial judge had taken sufficient corrective measures to counter the problem.  They therefore rejected the demand for a new trial for the Five.

The five men are detained in five separate maximum-security prisons and kept for long periods in isolation cells.  Two of them have even been refused the right to visits by their families.  Since the Atlanta Court of Appeal ruled that the convictions of the five Cubans were invalid, nothing justifies keeping them behind bars.  We cannot allow this extremely painful situation for these five Cubans and their families to drag on.

c.c.:         Michael Mukasey, United States Attorney General
                David Wilkins, American Ambassador to Canada

We the undersigned Bloc Québécois Members of Parliament
demand justice for the Five and their families

Francine Lalonde
Députée de La Pointe-de-l’Île
Porte-parole du Bloc Québécois en matière d’affaires étrangères

Attachment 3 of 3 – Signature page of MP Libby Davies