A US Court Vacates Sentences of Three Convicted in Cuba Spy Case
…A U.S. appeals court Wednesday upheld the convictions of the so-called "Cuban Five" but vacated the sentences of three of the men. Their cases were ordered back to a federal judge in Miami for new sentencing hearings…Maria Eugenia Guerrero, sister of Antonio Guerrero, who is serving a life term but whose case was remanded for a new sentencing in Miami, said she had not seen the 99-page decision…In Cuba, where the intelligence agents are hailed as heroes and their faces are plastered on walls and billboards, they are called "The Five." Cuban officials maintain that the men spied, not on the U.S. government, but on exile militants considered terrorists by the state.
The men, who were arrested in South Florida in September 1998, were convicted in 2001. Cuba said the agents were railroaded in politically charged Miami trials…The appeals court affirmed a sentence of two life terms for Gerardo Hernandez, who was convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four Miami-based pilots shot down by a Cuban fighter jet in 1996…The panel also affirmed the 15-year sentence of Rene Gonzalez, who was convicted of acting as an agent for a foreign government and conspiracy to defraud the United States…The American appeals court also vacated the life term of Luis Medina, aka Ramon Labanino, and the 19-year prison sentence of Ruben Campa, aka Fernando Gonzalez……(Sun-Sentinel)