Cuban militant posts bond, could be freed from N.M. jail
Apr. 19, 2007
Reprinted from Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles remained in custody late Wednesday and his chances of being released from federal custody were uncertain.
Posada was set to be freed Wednesday after his attorneys posted $250,000 bond, but he still faced the prospect of being held by immigration authorities.
Posada wants to return to Miami, where his wife lives, to await his May 11 trial on immigration fraud charges. The former CIA operative who admitted to entering the country illegally from Mexico two years ago has been ordered deported, and immigration officials could detain him after he is released from jail in Otero County, N.M.
A jail official said Posada was still in custody as of 10:20 p.m. local time but had no information on his possible release.
Posada, 79, was indicted on charges of lying to immigration authorities while trying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. An appeals court in New Orleans on Tuesday rejected the federal government's bid to keep Posada jailed until his trial.
He is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela, where he is accused of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people. A judge ruled that he couldn't be deported to those countries because he might be tortured, and no other country has agreed to take him.
Posada has been jailed since March 2005, when he was caught in Miami and sent to El Paso to face immigration charges. Federal prosecutors have accused him of lying about how he came into the U.S. and other details.
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