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Autore: Loco Soltero
Email: loco_soltero@libero.it
Remote Name: 151.30.252.108
Date: 14/04/2003
Time: 14.43
Leggete quest'articolo dell'agenzia Reuters. A me l'episodio era sfuggito. Trovo che l'agire del governo cubano possa essere definito solamente come BARBARICO.
By Marc Frank HAVANA, April 11 (Reuters) - Three hijackers who commandeered a Havana ferry last week in hopes of reaching the United States were executed on Friday after being convicted of terrorism, the Cuban government said. The three men were summarily tried and convicted on Tuesday on terrorism charges, and the Supreme Court and Council of State rejected their appeals, an official communique said. "At dawn today the sentences were carried out," the government said, referring to the executions of Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla Garcia and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac, accused of being the ringleaders of the group. The statement did not give the form of execution, but family members told human rights activists they were shot. Cuba generally uses a firing squad. The communique said the hijacking was "part of a sinister plan of provocations devised by the most extreme sectors in the U.S government and their allies, the terrorist Miami mafia (anti-Castro exiles), with the only aim of creating conditions and pretexts to attack our country." The ferry, with 50 passengers aboard, was hijacked by eight armed men on April 2. It ran out of fuel on the way and was towed back to Cuba where the group was captured on April 3, with the hostages freed unharmed. One of the hijackers had a gun, while the rest were armed with knives. Rumors of the executions swirled around Havana on Friday morning after some relatives reportedly began shouting, "Down with Fidel," outside their home in Central Havana. A Reuters reporter on the scene said the area was cordoned off by police. A distraught Ramona Copello, mother of Lorenzo Enrique Copello, who carried the pistol during the hijacking, denounced President Fidel Castro for betraying her. "I have always had tremendous affection for the comandante, you could say I loved him, but now I don't. He assassinated my son. Now I have no faith in the revolution. They didn't even let me talk to him before he died or see his body," she told Reuters.
U.S. PLOT SEEN Four other hijackers were sentenced to life in prison, and one to 30 years. Three women, described by passengers on the ferry as girlfriends of the hijackers, received prison terms ranging from two to five years, the government said. "These executions are an assassination draped in legalities," said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the illegal, but tolerated, Cuban Human Rights Commission. "When actions are taken in this summary fashion, the risk of mistakes is very high," he said, adding there had been an unofficial moratorium on executions since April 2000. The Roman Catholic Church issued a statement condemning the executions. In Washington, State Department spokesman Chip Barclay said: "We are concerned that these executions may have been a result of summary proceedings. Summary proceedings are a hallmark of totalitarian dictatorships." Cuba said earlier on Friday it foiled an attempt on Thursday to hijack an airliner to the United States, the third in less than a month, and that it was all part of a plot by Washington to destabilize the government. Cuba has been angry over the U.S. handling of hijackers and Washington's policy of granting residency to Cubans who reach U.S. shores. ((Reporting by Marc Frank, editing by Mohammad Zargham; +537-833-3145, msfcuba@yahoo.com))
Friday, 11 April 2003 23:46:04 ENDS [nN11185517]