Peter Page, The National Law Journal

               A Miami attorney and his client, the duped wife in a sham marriage to a Cuban spy, are
               believed to be the first creditors to use provisions of recent anti-terrorism legislation
               successfully to attach the property of a foreign government to collect a judgment under
               the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

               "We made a little bit of history," asserted attorney Scott W. Leeds of Miami's Leeds,
               Colby & Paris following a recent sheriff's auction in Key West, Fla., of a rickety
               Cuban-owned biplane.

               The opportunity to treat a sovereign government like a common debtor is just the most
               recent twist in a unique litigation that unfolded as a combination of spy novel and soap
               opera in Martinez v. Republic of Cuba, No. 99-18208 (Miami-Dade Co., Fla., Cir. Ct.).

               Leeds applied the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to sue the
               government of Cuba for sexual battery and win a $27 million judgment for Ana
               Margarita Martinez, 41. Leeds successfully argued that the Cuban government is liable
               to the claim of sexual battery because its agent, Juan Pablo Roque, a man Martinez
               believed was a Cuban defector, courted and married her as part of a spy plot to
               infiltrate the group Brothers to the Rescue.

               The anti-Castro organization, based in South Florida, is comprised of volunteer pilots
               who conduct regular air searches of the open ocean between Florida and Cuba,
               looking for people making the perilous crossing in rafts and small boats.

               Roque, a former Cuban air force pilot, met Martinez in a church and married her in
               1995 as part of his assumed identity, Leeds said.

               About $90 million in Cuban assets are frozen in the United States, but the State
               Department has never allowed the money to be used to pay claims, preferring to keep
               it as a bargaining chip, Leeds said. He lacked any avenue for collecting the $27 million
               judgment, until November when the Antonov-2 landed in Key West with a defecting
               family after a harrowing, wave-top flight from Cuba.

               "When the plane landed in Key West, I came up with the idea to attach the aircraft,"
               Leeds said.

               What followed has been the collision of mundane debt-collection procedures with the
               protections granted sovereign governments. Only recent provisions of anti-terrorism
               legislation tilted matters in favor of Leeds and his client. Leeds filed a writ of
               attachment, the first step in seizing assets to satisfy a judgment, but took the extra step
               of obtaining a court order specifying the aircraft as exempt from the Foreign Sovereign
               Immunities Act. He filed papers with the Monroe County sheriff's department in Key
               West to have the plane auctioned, much as someone would in a mortgage foreclosure.

               A CALL FROM STATE

               The process was knocked off track by a phone call from the State Department warning
               that attaching the aircraft was forbidden by the Trading with the Enemy Act, Leeds said.
               After a review of newly passed anti-terrorism legislation allowing "victims of terrorism" to
               attach the property of foreign governments "sponsoring terrorism," the State
               Department withdrew its objection, he said.

               The auction was a symbolic victory but did nothing to help pay the judgment. The
               bidding was lackluster, in part because the plane has no chance of meeting Federal
               Aviation Administration standards for airworthiness and in part because of a $16,000
               lien filed by Monroe County to cover storage and security costs.

               When the highest bid offered was a mere $6,500, Leeds purchased the plane on
               behalf of Martinez for $7,000, which is credited against the $27 million judgment. He is
               challenging the validity of the lien and, once that is cleared up, Martinez will either sell
               the airplane or donate it to a museum, Leeds said.

               "This was never a serious attempt to satisfy the judgment," he said. "[B]ut Ana was
               thrilled she could make a statement, so to speak."

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