A convicted Cuban spy who belonged to the now-dismantled Wasp Network faces deportation and would be the third forced to leave the country.

BY ALFONSO CHARDY

Marisol Gari, an Orlando woman convicted of spying for the Cuban government, has been detained for possible deportation back to the island, her Miami attorney says.

Louis Casuso told The Herald his client was detained two weeks ago and is now being held at a detention facility outside Miami-Dade County in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out deportation orders.

If deported, Gari, 46, would be the third person linked to the infamous Wasp Network expelled since the FBI busted the group in 1998.

The Wasp Network, or La Red Avispa, was an alleged Cuban spy group uncovered by U.S. agents. Five Wasp ringleaders were tried and convicted in Miami, though their case was recently reversed on appeal. The five now await a new trial.

Casuso said the deportation of Gari would be a betrayal of U.S. government promises of protection in exchange for cooperation. ''It would be an injustice,'' Casuso said. If Gari is sent back now, he said, she will face torture.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami declined to comment.

In April, another Wasp suspect, Juan Emilio Aboy, of Miami-Dade, was deported when Havana suddenly agreed to take him back. In 1998, the wife of a convicted Wasp ringleader was sent back.

Normally, U.S. immigration authorities decline to expel Cuban nationals to Cuba, or if they do Cuba refuses to take back the Cubans ordered deported.

2001 ARREST

Gari and her American husband, George, were arrested in Orlando Aug. 31, 2001, and charged in connection with alleged Wasp efforts to spy on the Miami-Dade County-based U.S. Southern Command and the Cuban American National Foundation. The Garis had moved to Orlando after having lived in the Miami area for about eight years.

Marisol agreed to plead guilty to a spying-related charge soon after the arrest. Subsequently George also agreed to plead guilty.

Marisol formally pleaded guilty Sept. 20, 2001, during an unusual closed hearing in Miami federal court before U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages.

Sources familiar with case told The Herald at the time that Marisol's sealed plea agreement called for her cooperation with federal prosecutors in their continuing investigation.

Casuso, her lawyer, said this past week he could not discuss precisely how Marisol assisted U.S. authorities.

But federal officials familiar with the case said U.S. officials were sufficiently pleased to try to persuade immigration officials not to deport her.

SENTENCING

On Jan. 4, 2002, Judge Ungaro-Benages sentenced Marisol to 3 ½ years in federal prison and her husband to seven.

When her prison time was up last year, Marisol was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put in deportation proceedings. She was initially held at an immigration facility in Key West where an immigration judge on Oct. 4 ordered her removal to Cuba.

Marisol did not appeal the order, which became final after the 30-day appeal window closed.

Some foreign nationals in deportation proceedings ask for asylum and other forms of protection at their removal hearings. If they have a criminal record, foreigners do not qualify for asylum but often can get deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture, especially if they come from countries like Cuba where human rights abuses are said to be rampant.

Some Cubans, however, opt not to invoke deferral and hope for release after Cuba refuses to take them back. U.S. authorities often release Cubans under terms of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting indefinite detention for foreigners whose countries won't take them back.

Marisol was released under supervision after more than three months in immigration custody and told to obtain travel documents to Cuba through the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, Casuso said.

But she deliberately did not request the documents for fear the diplomatic mission would issue them, Casuso said.