Cuban ferry hijackers executed - state TV - Friday, April 11, 2003 Posted: 3:58 PM EDT (1958 GMT) [Full Text] HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuba has executed three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry to sail to the U.S., Cuban state-run television reported Friday.
The firing squad sentences were carried out immediately after a Cuban court found the men guilty of terrorism.
They were part of a gang of approximately 10 involved in the April 2 hijacking in which the ferry, carrying at least 30 men, women and children, was forced to sail into the Straits of Florida, but ran out of fuel 30 miles from Havana.
Cuban officials towed it back to the Port of Mariel.
In a statement, the Cuban government said: "The maximum sentences [were] given out ... in response to these dangerous acts by the hijackers, [who] not only endangered the lives of many innocent people, but also endangered the security of the country."
During the hijack ordeal three passengers were released because of their physical conditions.
But the gang held knives to the throats of others and threatened to kill them if the vessel was not given enough fuel to carry them to the United States.
President Fidel Castro joined attempts to persuade the hijackers to free the passengers.
After about three hours, military officials boarded the ship and freed the hostages without firing a shot.
The executions come in the wake of two plane hijackings in recent weeks and amid a crackdown on civil liberties that has unfolded as world attention has been focused on Iraq.
Since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began last month, 75 dissidents have been sentenced to as many as 27 years in prison. [End]
CNN Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella contributed to this story.
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CNN didn't mention the people just arrested and given one day show trials before being sent to rot in Castro's prisons are independent journalists trying to do the job they won't do, report the hell of living under communism.
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French Sonia Arbib, 20, left, and Deborah Jaoui, 21, two of the tourists who were among the hostages when Cuban hijackers kidnapped a ferry in Havana, Cuba, last week, are seen Friday April 11, 2003 in Havana, Cuba. They said they were shocked to hear about the execution of three of the hijackers Friday. After the arrest April 3 in Mariel, west of Havana, the women pleaded with Cuban President Fidel Castro, who was at the scene, to show leniency in the trials of the hijackers. The women said the hijackers treated them well, in particular one of them they had befriended, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla. Sevilla was killed by firing squad Friday. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)
Ramona Copeyo Castillo, mother of executed hijacker Lorenzo Enrique Copeyo Castillo, shows her anger at the death of her Son(AFP/Adalberto Roque)
