US judge rules that spy can remain in Cuba

MIAMI, May 5, CMC – A United States federal district judge issued an order that a convicted Cuban spy free on parole who returned to Havana to attend his father’s funeral can remain in his homeland and does not have to return to the US to finish his jail sentence if he agrees to renounce his US citizenship.



The order, by Judge Joan Lenard to René González, unleashed a wave of speculation about whether it is linked to a possible exchange for Alan P. Gross, an American subcontractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), who has been jailed in Cuba since 2009, accused of distributing communication equipment to Jewish groups.



However, Phil Horowitz, González’s attorney, said the order authorizing his client to stay in Cuba has nothing to do with the Gross case. González told reporters in Cuba that he was pleased with the judge’s order, which responds to a legal petition he had submitted some time ago.



“First, I have to read the order,” he said. “I feel relieved. This was something I had requested.”



After a months-long trial here in 2001, a US federal jury found González, who was born in the United States to Cuban parents, and four other defendants - Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González (no relation to René) — guilty of espionage.



All five were given different prison sentences. Hernández received two consecutive life sentences, while the rest, except René González, saw their original sentences reduced after appeal.



Hernández remains in prison where he is serving two life sentences for conspiring to commit homicide because of his role in the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue’s planes by Cuban combat MiG planes in 1996, in which four people were killed.



Labañino, Guerrero and Fernando González are serving sentences of 30, 22 and 18 years, respectively.



González was released from jail in October 2011 after serving 13 years, and should have been on supervised parole for three more years.



US officials have consistently denied any plans to exchange the spies for Gross..



“I respect our judicial system and I respect the judge’s decision,” said Miami congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.



“However, I disagree with it, because the case of this convicted spy proves that you can inflict harm on your country of birth, spy in favor of an enemy state, serve only part of your sentence and, be released, even under restricted sentence; and then later retire to a quiet and prosperous life under the total protection of the Cuban regime,” she said.



Ros-Lehtinen also said that it was unfair to grant González this privilege while Gross remained jailed in Cuba. González is one of five Cuban intelligent agents sent to infiltrate military bases and Cuban exile groups



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