• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 07 / 31 / 2010

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Havana slammed the US authorities on Thursday for transferring one of the Miami 5's efforts to mount a legal appeal.

National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon reported that FBI agents threw Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, one of the imprisoned counter-terrorist agents, into "the Hole" of the Victorville high security prison in California on July 21.

"The Hole" is a six by three-foot punishment cell that Mr Hernandez now shares with another inmate.

Mr Alarcon said Mr Nordelo has been suffering from a "serious illness" since April. "Gerardo's health is in danger, and the United States is responsible for this situation," he said.

"He also seems to suffer blood pressure problems - he is just 45, but has lived in very difficult conditions for 12 years without any medical treatment."

Mr Alarcon said Washington was aware that he had been requesting a medical examination since April for poor health, but the prisoner was only allowed to see a doctor on July 20.

Despite protests to the US State Department the Cuban authorities had not yet received a reply.

The US have not told the Cuban government why Mr Hernandez is in the punishment cell and Mr Alarcon claimed this was "not purely an action of the prison."

The punishment was hampering Mr Hernandez's ability to meet his lawyers as he pursues an appeal, he said.

Mr Hernandez is serving two life sentences, one for espionage and the other for his alleged role in the 1996 downing by Cuban fighter jets of two civilian airplanes belonging to the Miami-based extremist group Brothers to the Rescue.

Four of its members were killed in the incident over international waters.

Havana has acknowledged that Mr Nordelo, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez were intelligence agents.

But it claims they were spying on right-wing terrorists in Miami's Cuban exile community, not the US government.

On Tuesday former South African political prisoners launched a campaign to press the US to free the Five.

ANC deputy general secretary Thandi Modise said the congress and former political prisoners in South Africa could not turn a blind eye on the Cubans.

"We are calling on the US to release them and we are also calling for support from the rest of the world," he declared.

A petition circulating as part of the campaign has already been signed by scores of former anti-apartheid activists who were jailed under the racist 1948-1994 National Party regime.

Friday 30 July 2010by Tom Mellen Printable

Source: MORNING STAR