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Thread: Accused Cuban terrorist pleads not guilty to lying
Texas - Occupied State - The Front Line
Accused Cuban terrorist pleads not guilty to lying
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene ... orldNews-4
Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:26pm ET
By Aracely Lazcano
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - An anti-Fidel Castro militant accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 pleaded not guilty on Monday to U.S. immigration charges, the latest round in a long fight by the U.S. government to keep him in jail.
Luis Posada Carriles, 78, who says he has renounced violence in the fight against Castro and only wants to join his family in Miami, Florida, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso shackled at his wrists and feet.
The shackles were removed for him to enter a not-guilty plea to a seven-count indictment issued early this month alleging he lied to U.S. immigration officials about illegally entering the United States in March 2005. He has been detained since May 2005.
If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The charges are the latest effort to hold Posada without declaring him a terrorist. Cuba and Venezuela have demanded Posada's extradition in the Cubana Airlines bombing that killed 73 people, including teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team returning from a tournament in Venezuela.
His case has been embarrassing for the U.S. government, which is engaged in a war on terror, because Posada was once in the pay of the CIA. Politically powerful Cuban-Americans see Posada as a hero but others say he is a terrorist.
The U.S. government has refused to send him to Cuba or Venezuela on grounds he might be tortured or killed but also has declined to admit him. The United States has been unable to find another country willing to accept him.
Posada waived his right to be considered for release on bond. His lawyer, Felipe Millan, said asking for bond would be pointless given nearly two years of government opposition to his release.
Under U.S. law, Posada could be detained indefinitely as a terrorist, but officials have not declared him one.
Posada has been described in court rulings as a character out of an espionage thriller novel, involved in preparation for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and active in anti-Castro activities for 40 years.
Lawyers for Posada have pressed for his release, arguing he is elderly, ill and no threat and that the U.S. government has no legal grounds for holding him.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=51014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01735.html
Judge Dismisses Posada's Bid to Be Freed
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Wednesday, February 21, 2007; 10:29 PM
EL PASO, Texas -- A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by an anti-Fidel Castro activist to be released from jail while immigration officials figure out where to deport him.
U.S. District Judge Philip R. Martinez threw out Luis Posada Carriles' lawsuit after federal prosecutors said immigration officials could not release him because he is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Posada, an ex-CIA operative who is suspected of bombing a Cuban jet 31 years ago, left Department of Homeland Security custody after his indictment last month on suspicion of lying in a citizenship application.
Posada, 79, was arrested two years ago on an immigration violation after he reported paying a smuggler to sneak him into Texas from Mexico.
An immigration judge later ordered that Posada be deported but ruled that he could not be sent to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen.
Several countries, including Mexico, have declined to allow Posada in. He sued last year, arguing that the U.S. government cannot hold him indefinitely while they look for a country willing to let him move there.
Governments of both countries want Posada sent to Venezuela to stand trial on charges that he was in Caracas when he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing.
Posada, who had a role in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, has denied any wrongdoing.
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