Havana, Aug. 9 (AIN) The decision by the Atlanta Court of Appeals in the US to order a new trial in the case of the “Cuban Five” confirms the arguments of the defense, said Cuban lawyer Roberto Gonzalez Sehwerert. 

The attorney stressed that on many occasions before the trial’s venue in Miami had been questioned as being illegal; stressing that it should never have been carried out there. “This new step opens up the possibility for justice to be done,” Gonzalez Sehwerert noted.  

Attorney Gonzalez Sehwerert explained that now it would be necessary to analyze in depth the court’s ruling, which went as far as to revoke the sentences handed out against the Five, and study the degree to which the judges’ assessment concurs with the arguments of the defense. 

“This has been the best news we’ve gotten on the case on which we have worked so diligently,” he said.   

The Cuban lawyer, who is also the brother Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, one of the Five, stressed that a recent and similar ruling by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Commission on Humans Rights had characterized the Miami trial as biased and arbitrary.   

Gonzalez Sehwerert explained that the US government had challenged the report presented by the UN Working Group suggesting that the experts’ decision was marred by Cuban politicization. “Now, even the US Court of Appeals has contradicted the arguments of Washington,” the Cuban lawyer said.  

More than seven years have gone by since the Cuban Five were arrested. They finally received overly harsh sentences than ranged from 15 years to double life terms. 

The appeal was heard 17 months ago by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta.  The verdict had been greatly anticipated in Cuba and in over 50 countries where solidarity movements in support of the Cuban Five have taken root.

(AIN 09 August 2005)