[NYTr] Cuban 5: BBC Interview a Major Media Breakthrough
 
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 16:20:09 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Read the interview, earlier coverage and listen to the Podcast here:

PODCAST: BBC Talks Live with Gerardo Hernandez of the Cuban 5
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070702/065149.html

Transcript: BBC Phone Intvw w/Gerardo Hernandez of Cuban 5, July 2, 2007
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070702/065154.html

The Miami Herald Covers the Interview, July 2, 2007:
BBC Interviews Gerardo Hernandez of Cuban 5
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070702/065095.html

Granma Daily - Jul 5, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art88.html

Cuban Five's Case Spotlighted on BBC Radio

It was the first time that a major international media broadcast an
interview with one of the Cuban Five, prisoners for over eight years in
the US for fighting terrorism against Cuba. The text and sound of the
BBC interview with Gerardo Hernandez is available on the
www.freethefive.org website in both Spanish and English.

Hernandez insisted on his and his fellow Cubans innocence in a
16-minute interview from the federal penitentiary where he is
imprisoned in California. He noted that they had been in the United
States to defend their country against terrorist attacks organized from
Miami.

Along with Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez
and Fernando Gonzalez were arrested in 1998 on charges of conspiracy to
commit espionage against the United States, and other related charges.

A highly-politicized and irregularity-plagued trial in Miami led to
their convictions and sentences ranging from 15 years imprisonment to
the double life sentence received by Gerardo, the BBC interviewee.

Hernandez told the BBC that their mission was carried out without
affecting US national security and that he was totally innocent of the
charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

The Cuban recalled the decades of terrorist attacks against Cuba
organized and financed with total impunity by groups based in Florida.

BBC radio has an estimated worldwide audience of around 70 million
people. Its large English- and Spanish-speaking audience means that the
interview can make a major impact in awareness of the case within the
United States.

Hernandez said the worst part of his imprisonment in the US is having
not seen his wife Adriana Perez for nearly nine years, because the US
government has repeatedly denied her visa applications.

Hernandez said he and his comrades are convinced that some day justice
will prevail when the people of the United States learn the truth of
the case, a contention expressed on several occasions by Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
       
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