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Release Cuban Five or Face Nuremberg, says Fidel Castro

Havana, Aug 15 (AIN) President Fidel Castro said that true justice in the Cuban Five case will only occur when the men -considered national heroes on the island- are released and return to Cuba.

During an encounter Saturday in Havana with the mothers, spouses and children of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US for trying to prevent terrorist attacks against the island, Fidel Castro praised the decision made by three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Appeals last Tuesday.

The judges unanimously overturned the lower court convictions. In their 93-page ruling the court acknowledged that the Cuban Five clearly did not and could not receive a fair trial in Miami.

President Castro said the best thing the Bush administration could do is immediately release the innocent Cubans. He said a new trial would be the worse alternative for the White House, since unlike the last trial, the entire world will be watching. The Cuban leader said a new trial would resemble Nuremberg as the crimes and support given by the Bush administration to terrorists based in US territory would be part of the testimony.

The lies will be exposed said Fidel Castro, as well as the cynicism and brutal way the five Cubans basic human rights have been violated by Washington. He said the decision by the Atlanta judges was an expression of the best traditions of the US people. "The Cuban Five will return home, have no doubts about it," he added.

While Washington continues to persecute five innocent men who had infiltrated Miami based terrorist organizations, Fidel Castro recalled how the Bush administration protects terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada, an explosives expert and mastermind behind the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner killing all 73 persons on board, was also involved in several 1997 hotel bombings in Havana, numerous assassination attempts against Cuban officials and further plots against civilian aircraft.

Fidel challenged Washington to say if US authorities received information on terrorist plans denounced by the Cuban Five who, along their relatives have had to suffer much during their long seven years in prison.

Fidel warned Cubans to mobilize against any US attempt to use the Atlanta decision to justify the possible granting of asylum to Posada Carriles in US territory. "The original plan was to send him to El Salvador or anywhere else but to the country which has the right to try him," referring to Venezuela, which is demanding his extradition.

The Cuban President said there are two battles to wage; one is to demand the immediate release of the Cuban Five and the other is to demand the extradition of Posada Carriles to Venezuela. On the day of 79th birthday, he also praised the heroic resistance of the Cuban people against a nearly half century US economic blockade on the island.