Judge dismisses Posada's bid to be freed
by Alicia A. Caldwell
Feb. 21, 2007
Reprinted from Associated Press
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by an anti-Fidel Castro activist to be released from jail while immigration officials figure out where to deport him.
U.S. District Judge Philip R. Martinez threw out Luis Posada Carriles' lawsuit after federal prosecutors said immigration officials could not release him because he is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Posada, an ex-CIA operative who is suspected of bombing a Cuban jet 31 years ago, left Department of Homeland Security custody after his indictment last month on suspicion of lying in a citizenship application.
Posada, 79, was arrested two years ago on an immigration violation after he reported paying a smuggler to sneak him into Texas from Mexico.
An immigration judge later ordered that Posada be deported but ruled that he could not be sent to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen.
Several countries, including Mexico, have declined to allow Posada in. He sued last year, arguing that the U.S. government cannot hold him indefinitely while they look for a country willing to let him move there.
Governments of both countries want Posada sent to Venezuela to stand trial on charges that he was in Caracas when he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing.
Posada, who had a role in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, has denied any wrongdoing.
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