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At
present, we’re considering two possibilities: to request
Florida’s South District Judge Joan Lenard to reconsider her
ruling of not allowing Rene to return to Cuba or to appeal
to a higher court," said Philip Horowitz, Rene’s Defense
attorney, in statements to the Prensa Latina news agency.
The
report, published on Saturday by Granma newspaper, adds that on
September 16 Lenard defeated the motion presented by Rene, in
which he requests permission to travel to Cuba and live there
with his family, instead of serving his three years of
supervised release in US territory.
Like
in the case of Rene, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio
Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez were arrested on September 12,
1998, and condemned in 2001 to sentences ranging from 15 years
to two life imprisonments plus 15 years, for monitoring the
actions of Florida-based, anti-Cuban terrorist groups.
Horowitz highlighted that there are many arguments, mainly
humanitarian in the case of Rene, because his client is only
requesting to serve the three years of supervised release
outside the USA.
However –pointed out the jurist-, so far he’s not allowed to
return to Havana -for having been born in US territory- and he
will stay there and will comply with the norms and special
conditions of supervised release, according to the judge’s
verdict on December 13, 2001.
The
purpose of this request is precisely to modify that supervised
release in order to allow him to live outside the USA with his
family, explained Horowitz, in statements also published on
Saturday by the Juventud Rebelde newspaper.
He
clarified that this procedure is routinely used in cases of
persons without citizenship, who are deported to their
countries, and although they’re technically under supervised
release, they’re not forced to stay in that nation.
Experts have described the new measure as an unprecedented
decision, while the international movement in solidarity with
The Five called to denounce the additional punishment imposed on
the Cuban antiterrorist, whom Washington has denied, for over a
decade, the right to be visited by his wife, Olga Salanueva.
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