PANAMA, January 27 (PL) – The four terrorists accused of plotting to
                   assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro are to remain in prison in
                   Panama after a court declared their detention legal, government sources
                   stated today.

                   A spokesman for the Supreme Court of Justice announced that the Second
                   Higher Court considers legal the detention of Luis Posada Carriles and
                   three other persons implicated in conspiring to assassinate the Cuban
                   leader during the 10th Ibero-American Summit here.

                   The court rejected the habeas corpus plea lodged by Rogelio Cruz, defense
                   attorney for the conspirators, who have been detained awaiting trial since
                   November 2000 after Fidel Castro himself exposed the assassination
                   attempt.

                   Cruz had requested the release of Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez,
                   Guillermo Novo and Pedro Remón after the Fifth Circuit Criminal Court
                   last week postponed the trial against them and two other detainees.

                   According to investigations, the planned attack against the Caribbean
                   leader was to be executed with the powerful explosives C-4, PETN and
                   RTX, used for military purposes and not available to the public in Panama.

                   The detainees tried to take advantage of the Cuban president’s visit to
                   this country during the summit of Ibero-American heads of state and
                   parallel activities, such as an address that Fidel was to have given to
                   2,000 people at the University of Panama auditorium in the capital.

                   Posada Carriles and his accomplices are accused of possessing explosives,
                   threatening the collective security, possession of false documents, and
                   forming an illicit association with criminal intent.

                   Since the capture of the terrorists, who are of Cuban origin, the defense
                   has resorted to various legal subterfuges to secure their release.