Attorney Leonard Weinglass reviews the latest court findings and next steps, including taking the case to the US Supreme Court.

[Ed. Note: Leonard Weinglass is a defense attorney for the five Cubans arrested in Miami for allegedly spying on right-wing Cuban Americans plotting actions against the government of Cuba. Here are excerpts from an interview with him by Arleen Rodriguez Derivet.]

“A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta upheld Wednesday the guilty verdicts of the Cuban Five, prisoners in the United Statessince 1998. It also vacated the sentences of three of the men, ordering a new sentencing in Miami. The sentences of Rene Gonzalez (15 years) and Gerardo Hernandez (two life terms plus 15 years) were maintained. In the case of Hernandez, the panel voted 2-1. A 16-page [minority] opinion of Judge Phyllis Kravitch states that the government did not present sufficient evidence to prove Gerardo’s guilt in the charge of conspiracy to commit murder…
 
 “The 99-page ruling of the Appeals Court of Atlanta, which explicitly favors the government position, was drafted in politically charged language unusual for legal texts. It states that the defense arguments in their appeal "are meritless..."  
 
LW.— “When the Cuban Five were arrested in 1998, the Pentagon and the Justice Department issued a statement saying that the national security of the United States was not affected. Now, after 10 years in prison, we have a statement from a high level court that there was no espionage and that no top-secret information was obtained or transmitted… 
  
“We can immediately, on June 24, ask the three judges to reconsider …  
”Then we have the right to go to the Supreme Court to reconsider … the venue, the misconduct of the prosecution, the insufficient evidence in the case of Gerardo and … the use of a secret procedure between the judge and prosecution against the Cuban Five and also having maintained secret evidence that could have been delivered to the defense.”