[NYTr] Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer Demands Freedom For Cuban 5
 
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 17:23:57 -0500 (CDT)

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Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
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Nobel Laureate Demands Freedom For Cuban Five

Havana, Oct 5 (acn) Nobel Literature Prize Laureate in 1991 Nadine 
Gordimer has condemned the unjust incarceration of the five Cuban 
antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in US prisons for fighting 
terrorism and called for a global effort to demand their release.

Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and 
Gerardo Hernandez, internationally known as the Cuban five, were 
detained in 1998 for trying to prevent terrorist actions organized by 
right-wing anti-Cuba organizations based in Florida. The Five were 
charged with espionage and punished with extremely harsh sentences 
despite the antiterrorist nature of their mission.

In her letter published yesterday in The New York Times, [see below]
Gordimer writes that the Cuban Five have suffered physical and
psychological torture during their more than nine years in prison. She
further noted that they are serving sentences based on false
accusations and were found guilty by a prejudiced Miami jury, reports
Granma newspaper.

Gordimer compared the Cuban Five case with what commonly took place in 
her home country of South Africa under the racist Apartheid system.

                             ***

sent by Jane Franklin 

The New York Times - Oct 4, 2007

Letters to the Editor

A Nobel Laureate's Plea: Justice for the Cuban Five

To the Editor:

In the responsibility for human justice, which, I believe, must be
upheld and expressed by all citizens of our world, I condemn the
continued prosecution and incarceration of the Cuban Five by the United
States of America. This travesty of justice, perpetrated by what claims
to be the world's example of democratic standards, has now been pursued
for almost a decade.

The five Cubans have been and continue to be subject to harsh physical
and mental suffering while a succession of arraignments for conspiracy
to commit espionage and murder have not been proved against them,
despite initial conviction in Miami by a jury of more than doubtful
objective competence, the overturning of the convictions by the Court
of Appeals in Atlanta and the ordering of a new trial, a decision
subsequently revoked.

The five remain incarcerated and severely isolated by restrictions
against communication with family, legal representatives and human
rights organizations.

I feel compelled by human concern and values, and by my awareness of
how justice was travestied in my own country, South Africa, in like
ways during the apartheid era, to raise my voice in protest at the
persecution of these five Cuban men.

Nadine Gordimer
Johannesburg, Sept. 27, 2007

[The writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.]

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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