US High court rejects Cuban militant's appeal
Mar. 23, 2009
Reprinted from Associated Press
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles' attempt to have immigration fraud charges thrown out because the government used trickery and deceit to build a case against him.
The justices, in an order Monday, are letting stand a ruling by the federal appeals court in New Orleans, Louisiana, that the 81-year-old anti-Castro militant should stand trial on charges that he lied to federal authorities in his 2005 bid to become a U.S. citizen.
Earlier, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, dismissed the criminal charges because the government used the pretext of a naturalization interview to build the case against Posada.
The Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela is wanted in the South American country on charges that he orchestrated the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Posada was arrested in the United States on a civil immigration violation in May 2005 after sneaking into the country from Mexico about two months earlier. Posada, a former CIA operative and U.S. Army officer, has claimed that he was brought across the border into Texas by a smuggler, but federal authorities have alleged that he sailed from Mexico to Florida.
Venezuela wants to extradite Posada from the United States so that he can stand trial for the airliner bombing.
He has been living freely in Miami since 2007.
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