National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

Prosecutors file appeal in Posada case

by Jay Weaver
June 6, 2007
Reprinted from The Miami Herald

One month after a stinging loss, the Justice Department Tuesday appealed a Texas federal judge's dismissal of immigration fraud charges against Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles.

In May, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone threw out an indictment against Posada, 79, who was charged with lying about how he sneaked into the United States in 2005 during his application for citizenship.

She also tossed out Posada's citizenship interview with immigration authorities, in which he said he crossed the Texas border to enter the country that March. Authorities charged he came by boat from a Mexican island.

In her scathing dismissal in El Paso, the judge condemned the prosecution as a ''pretext'' for gathering alleged terrorist evidence on Posada, a former CIA-trained explosives expert. ''The government's tactics in this case are so grossly shocking and so outrageous as to violate the universal sense of justice,'' Cardone ruled.

Federal prosecutors filed their appellate notice with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which reviews federal cases in Texas.

Freed by Cardone's order on May 8, Posada embarked on a road trip from El Paso to Miami. Posada, who had to travel by car because he's on a government no-fly list, arrived four days later at his wife's home in West Kendall, where he was allowed to live under house arrest while awaiting trial.

He is no longer living there for his own privacy and security, his Miami lawyer said.

Cardone's decision fueled political theater in Washington, Cuba and Venezuela. Cuba, Venezuela and other foreign governments that disagree with the Bush administration's war on terrorism have pointed to Posada's release as an example of a U.S. double standard.

Posada's attorney, Arturo Hernandez, accused U.S. government lawyers of deceiving his client to bolster a far more serious terrorism investigation into his alleged role in a series of 1997 tourist site bombings in Cuba. A federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., is investigating the wiring of money to Posada to recruit the bombers. Hernandez could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Government's Notice of Appeal (PDF)

Feds appeal Posada's dismissal

by Alicia A. Caldwell
June 6, 2007
Reprinted from AP

Federal prosecutors have appealed a judge's decision to dismiss an immigration fraud case against an anti-Castro militant who is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on charges that he plotted a jetliner bombing.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed the case last month after ruling that the government had manipulated an interview with Luis Posada Carriles, who was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and used it as a pretext to develop a criminal case against him.

Lawyers for the government filed the appeal notice with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday. The two-page document does not include details about the government's grounds for the appeal.

One of Posada's Florida lawyers, Rhonda A. Anderson, said she had not seen the appeal and could not comment on it.

Posada, a 79-year-old former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier, has been living in Miami since the case was dismissed. He was accused of lying during the interview and on his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Posada is wanted in Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, and Cuba, where he was born, on charges that he plotted the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Cardone dismissed the fraud charges against Posada the week his trial was to begin, saying the government engaged in fraud, deceit, trickery and "grossly shocking" tactics in building its case on the April 2006 naturalization interview.

Though out of jail, Posada faces a long-standing civil deportation order connected to allegations that he sneaked into the country illegally from Mexico in March 2005.

An immigration judge in El Paso has ruled that while Posada must be deported, he cannot be sent to Venezuela or Cuba because of the risk that he would be tortured.

His release last month set off a flurry of protests around Latin America. The governments of both Venezuela and Cuba have also accused the Bush administration of harboring a terrorist.