BY ANA ACLE

 On a rainy day in Havana early last month, Roberto Viza Egües slipped through
 security and hid in a container aboard an Air France airliner bound for Europe.

 A card-carrying member of the Feb. 24 Movement, a political dissident group on
 the island, Viza endured 14 hours of freezing temperatures, not enough oxygen
 and an insufferable nosebleed while in the plane's storage room. He landed safely
 in Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport Aug. 13.

 French journalists dubbed the stowaway's survival a miracle.

 But Friday, after French courts rejected his application for asylum, citing lack of
 proof of persecution, Viza was deported back to Cuba where his fate is unknown.

 His Miami relatives were frantic when they heard he was sent back and said
 Sunday that Viza remains at Villa Marista prison. On Saturday, Viza turned 26.

 ``How can they send him back without listening to him?'' said cousin Mercy Pérez
 of Miami. ``They can kill him or put him in prison for 30 years.''

 FRENCH ESCORTS

 A friend saw Viza arrive in Havana with French officers as escorts.

 ``He was beaten up,'' Pérez said. ``He had told me that he was not going to get in
 the plane unless they drugged him or beat him.''

 Laurent Muller, president of the Paris-based European Association for a Free
 Cuba, met Viza Tuesday during Viza's detention in France.

 ``He was all right, but quite scared about going back to Cuba,'' Muller said in a
 telephone interview from Paris.

 Viza's deportation surprised Muller, whose organization had kept in touch with
 Viza every hour until they could no longer reach him Thursday or Friday. Muller
 and Pérez were told Viza had been freed. But on Friday, French journalists
 confirmed the Cuban had been returned.

 SNEAKED ABOARD

 According to Muller, Viza said he originally left Cuba after receiving a death threat
 for his involvement with the Feb. 24 Movement.

 Viza went to José Martí Airport, on the outskirts of Havana, on Aug. 12.

 He somehow managed to sneak aboard the Air France plane.

 In Cuba, he left behind a wife and an 18-month-old girl and told Pérez he wanted
 to come to Miami where he has relatives.

 Muller said that Viza was not represented by an attorney, and thus was not
 defended in court.

 Viza is the son of a political prisoner, also named Roberto Viza, of Miami. The
 elder Viza came from Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, forced to leave
 behind his wife and three children.

 Pérez said the elder Viza is extremely upset about his son's deportation.

 ``He can't believe it.''

 IN FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS

 The younger Viza soon began to follow in his father's footsteps, arguing for human
 rights in Cuba. By 13, he was a member of the Martí Civic League, Muller said.

 At 14, he tried to escape the island but was captured by Cuban authorities and
 thrown in Villa Marista for a week, Muller said.

 He recently had participated in hunger strikes with other Cuban dissidents, Muller
 said.

 ``The poor guy who seems to be very nice must be under incredible pressure right
 now,'' Muller said.

 ``I would urge all human rights organizations, Cuban and non-Cuban, to get him
 out of this hell.''