Alarcon Stresses Role of Public Opinion in the Cause of the Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, May 9 (acn) Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon highlighted on Monday the role of public opinion in the cause of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly imprisoned in the US.

In statements broadcast by the National Television Newscast, Alarcon asserted that the center of the problem lies outside the courtroom, in public opinion, in the knowledge or lack of knowledge of people with respect to the case of Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, and Antonio Guerrero, known internationally as the Cuban Five.

Alarcon referred to the public knowledge that the US government paid journalists for lying and publishing calumnies on these antiterrorists so as to influence the members of the court negatively in the trial held in Miami.

All these actions, among others, prevented the Cuban Five from having a fair trial, stressed Alarcon, who added that there would be a reaction on the part of the American people if they knew what the main aspects of the process are.

The Web site Reporteros por contrato, an initiative by the US National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, announced that they will soon publish new evidence on Washington’s payments to Miami journalists to create a hostile atmosphere against these antiterrorists.

These revelations are based on more than 2,200 pages of contracts signed by Miami journalists, including some from Radio and TV Marti, the Prensa Latina news agency reported on Monday.

The Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 and tried in 2001. They were condemned to harsh sentences –ranging from 15 years to two life imprisonments- for monitoring the activities of terrorist groups operating, with Washington’s consent, in the US state of Florida.

ACN