5 were convicted in Florida; lawyer says punishment unjustified

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – The Cuban government on Sunday protested a U.S. decision to put five convicted Cuban spies in solitary confinement, calling it "an utterly unnecessary
and irrational act" and a violation of "fundamental principles of law."

American prison officials couldn't be reached for comment. In the past when they have put the same spies in solitary, the officials have said it was for the inmates'
protection.

Leonard Weinglass, a lawyer for Antonio Guerrero, one of the convicted agents, told a Havana radio station: "None of them belongs in solitary confinement. It is
completely unjustified as all of them are model prisoners."

The five were jailed on espionage-related charges in Florida in September 1998 and later convicted. The Cuban government has since treated them as folk heroes,
plastering their photos on billboards, T-shirts and banners all over the island.

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Mr. Guerrero, René González and Fernando González have all protested their convictions, saying they were in South Florida
infiltrating anti-Castro groups to try to protect their country from attack.

Now in solitary, they are not allowed visits from their attorneys or from Cuban government representatives, their attorneys say. Nor can they use the telephone,
Cuban officials said.

They are scheduled to appeal their convictions in a federal court in Atlanta by April 7.

The lawyer also said that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the U.S. government put jailed members of the Black Panther
organization into solitary confinement across the country.

He said that was an "unjustified act and had nothing whatever to do with whatever national crisis the government was claiming."

In the Cubans' case, he said, "I regard this as probably the same as what happened to the Black Panthers merely because they were political people being held for
political reasons."

The only other explanation, he said, is that the move was "motivated by a desire to increase their punishment."

A communiqué from Cuban diplomats in Washington said the prisoners' "exemplary behavior does not warrant this kind of treatment. There is reason to believe they
are singled out because they are political prisoners."

Prosecutors have said the spies were a threat to U.S. security and some allegedly tried to infiltrate U.S. military bases.