Chronicle on Cuba - January 2004

Terrorism

January 21: The Panama trial of four Cuban exiles accused of a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro has been postponed indefinitely, a defense attorney said. Luis Posada Carriles, considered Cuba's most wanted terrorist, was arrested in Panama City in late 2000 along with three Miami-Dade County men -- Gaspar Jiménez, Guillermo Novo and Pedro C. Remón -- accused of plotting to kill Castro with a bomb while he attended a presidential summit in Panama. The Cuban government released a statement expressing ''worry and indignation'' over the ''maneuvers'' by defense attorney Rogelio Cruz to delay the trial. Cruz acknowledged that the latest delay was caused by a change in judges that defense attorneys requested. Judge Enrique Paniza was replaced by Judge José Ho Juistiniani after Cruz raised questions about Paniza's impartiality. Ho postponed the trial after saying he had not had time to rule on important evidence. But Cruz said he did not want the delay. [Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Relations] (The Miami Herald, 21/1/04)

January 21: The lawyer for four Cuban exiles accused by Cuba of plotting to kill Fidel Castro said he would ask a judge to release his clients temporarily after the court again suspended the trial. "We have been left once again without knowing a date for the start of the trial," said lawyer Rogelio Cruz. "The fairest thing would be for the Cubans to be released conditionally" until the trial begins. (AP, 21/1/04)

January 27: A Panamanian court has rejected an appeal to free four Cubans who are in jail on charges they plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro in 2000, the suspects' lawyer has said. Attorney Rogelio Cruz told the press that he had filed a habeas corpus motion but that it was denied by judges on the Second Superior Court. Local television reports said the judges ruled that the preventative detention of the four suspects was legal and therefore rejected the appeal. (EFE, 27/1/04)

January 29: The four terrorists accused of plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro are to remain in prison in Panama after a court declared their detention legal, government sources stated. 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 Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama City. (Radio Habana Cuba, 29/1/04)

January 29: Three juveniles who were captured in raids in Afghanistan have been released from a US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and repatriated to their home country, the Pentagon said. The Pentagon would not identify the three or provide details about the circumstances surrounding their capture and release, saying they were concerned they may be threatened by Taliban or al-Qaeda sympathisers. (News.24, 30/1/04)