The Miami Five - Informationen

To the
European Parliament
AFET- Committee on Foreign Affairs / Commission des affaires étrangères
DROI - Subcommittee on Human Rights / Sous-commission "droits de l'homme"
Wiertzstraat, B-1047 Brussels
Fax: (32-2) 284 69 74 (32-2) 230 69 33
Plateau du Kirchberg, B.P. 1601, L-2929 Luxembourg
Fax: (352) 43 00 294 94 (352) 43 00 293 93 (352) 43 00 292 92,

Allée du Printemps, B.P. 1024/F, F-67070 Strasbourg Cedex
Fax: (33) (0)3 88 25 65 01

The activity and aim of the five men convicted in Miami in 2001 named
Gerardo Hernández Nordelo (# 58739-004), Ramón Labañino Salazar (# 58734-004),
Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez (# 58741-004), Fernando González Llort (#58733-004) and
René González Sehwerert (# 58738-004)
was - without ever committing espionage - to protect the cuban people, the sovereignty and the territory of the Republic of Cuba against acts of terrorism.
The case of the nowadays widely known Cuban5 is therefore a prime example of political prosecution regardless of (national and international) law and justice.

1. To secure undeniable human rights for the five prisoners according to the universal declaration of Human Rights (Art. 8 - 12) by the UN-General Assembly on 10th December 1948, the EP-Committee on Foreign Affairs - Subcommittee on Human Rights passes the following resolution:

The international most minimal guarantees for criminal proceedings have been totally disregarded by

17 month of maximum security isolation imprisonment without any justification;
the impossibility of a fair trial in Miami and the ongoing denial of an essential new hearing of evidence (outside of Miami);
the lack of an appropriate degree of culpability and missing reasonableness of guilt concerning the imposed sentences and partly the considerable disregard of lawful limits of the penalty;
the abuse of law by improper use of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA);
the application of judicial constructions like "conspiracy to commit espionage" and

"conspiracy to murder" and therefore convictions without sufficient proof.

2. The Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament may establish the following motion:

The judicial authority of the United States of America is required:

to grant to the consular officials of the Republik of Cuba the unrestricted right to visit the above-mentioned prisoners;
to grant entry visas to the wives of Gerardo Hernández and René González, as well as to his 1998 in Miami/Florida/USA born daughter; and to guarantee and execute the right to visit their husbands and father respectively!

Grounds of decision:
To discover planed acts of terror against Cuba and third countries, still being prepared within the USA, has been the only object of the five Cubans. Their findings were handed over to the F.BI. by the Cuban authorities. Instead of acting and taking legal proceedings against the paramilitary and terrorist organisations of Cuban exiles within the USA, the US-authorities have investigated the five Cubans, arrested, prosecuted and taken them to court in Miami/Florida.
After their capture in September 1998, the Five were held under strongest isolation conditions - special punishment isolation cells - for 17 month.

The criminal proceedings in court have taken place at the stronghold of the Cuban-exile community - Miami/Florida - in an atmosphere of highest public condemnation of and prejudice against the Republic of Cuba. As an unbiased jury could not be found, the defendents´ claim for a "change of venue" had to be permitted, but was refused.
First of all, misusing the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), about 800 documents with a total of
15 000 pages were secretly raided from the defendants, confiscated and then stamped "top secret", making it impossible for the accused Five to use their own documents in favour of their defence.
Despite the protest of the defendants, only the court and the prosecuting attorney alone ruled out, which defendants´ documents would be given back to the defence counsel lawyers to argue their case. This had never happened before in US-history and is a massive undermination of the right to an effective defence.

The conviction of "conspiracy to commit espionage or murder" relieved the prosecuting attorneys office of the judicial duty to proof at every charge, that the defendants not only were up to or had started to put any criminal act into effect nor for any time in the future that therefore even an adequately definite plan existed.
This lead to convictions alone on the grounds of the presumed attitudes and views of the accused Five.

Additionally, the Cuban Five have been divided from each other straight after their arrest and locked into solitary isolation cells (basically punishment cells), designated only for the penalization of violations of prison rules. Furthermore, during the first isolation period any contact to their families was totally refused.
Furthermore, the wife of Gerardo Hernández - Adriana Pérez - is not allowed to visit him for over 6 years.
The wife of René González - Olga Salanueva - is being rejected entry to the USA since her deportation in 2000. In consequence their daughter Ivette, who was born in Miami/USA in 1998 is not able to see her father since then either. Regarding the circumstances in prison and the far journey, it would be an unreasonable demand to a six-year old child to visit its father without being accompanied by its mother.
These procedures are violating Art. 37 of the minimal UN-standards for treatment of prisoners: "Prisoners must be ... allowed to get in contact with their relatives and friends ... in regular intervals both in letters as well as by visits."

Since the beginning of 2004 even the Cuban consular officials are restricted to visit the prisoners only once every three months. These restrictions are an open breach of Art.5 i (Consular Functions), Art. 34 (Freedom of Movement) and Art. 36 (Communication and Contact with Nationals of the Sending State) of the 1963 Vienna Covention on Consular Relations, to which the United States of America are a party of.

Unfortunately these US-actions are not solitary accidents but do join up to over 40 years of permanent blockade and agression policies by eleven successive US-administrations, trying everything to manipulate the political system of the Republic of Cuba. Consequently in this course, they did not even stop at exteritorial legislation violating international law of nations nor shy away from concrete military and non-military terrorism.
Such a policy can not be tolerated in the sense of the Charta of the United Nations and the peaceful co-existance of nations.

This motion is drafted to be presented to Members of European Parliament, EP-working groups and EP-Party-Factions and is launched and strongly supported by the following organisations and VIPs: 1. FG BRD-Kuba e.V. (Friendship Society Federal Rublic of Germany - Cuba)
2. Netzwerk Cuba Informationsbüro e.V.
3. Cuba si
4. FBK e.V. (Friendship Corporation Berlin - Cuba)
5. !Basta ya! - German Free the Five-Committee
6. European-Cuban Solidarity Meeting in Luxembourg, November 20 - 21 2004
7. Konstantin Wecker, songwriter and singer

Motion Request for European Parliament