Executed men's families testify

Posted on Tue, Oct. 18, 2005

CUBA
Executed men's families testify
Relatives of three Cuban men executed in 2003 for attempting to hijack a
boat offered a teary video testimony before an OAS panel.
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@herald.com

WASHINGTON - The relatives of three young Cuban men who were summarily
tried and executed in 2003 for attempting to hijack a small boat
testified Monday before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights
through a video smuggled out of the island.

The poor-quality video was produced by a member of the Cuban opposition
and was shown during a one-hour hearing at the IACHR headquarters in
Washington. It showed a grandmother clutching the childhood photo of one
of the executed men, and two other male relatives.

''I cry every day,'' said the grandmother, tears in her eyes as she sat
outside a residence with little furniture or luxury. ''I would say that
what I am suffering is the fault of the comandante,'' she said in a
reference to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The identities of the three relatives filmed in the video were revealed
during the proceedings, but organizers asked the news media not to
publish the names to protect them from retaliation by the Cuban security
services.

On Apr. 2 of 2003, Lorenzo Copello, Bárbaro Sevilla and Jorge Martínez
tried to hijack a Havana ferry with about 50 people on board at gunpoint
and force it to sail for the United States. They were caught, tried and
executed by firing squad nine days later in a case condemned by the
human rights community, the U.S. and other governments.

The hearing at the IACHR, a branch of the Organization of American
States, also revealed new details on the trial. The family members said
they were not allowed to meet with the accused men and were not informed
of the trial until it was over. Officials also refused to let them see
the bodies after their executions.

In the same case, the court also sentenced four other men to prison
terms that ranged from 30 years to life, and sent three women to prison
for three years each.

The hijackers met their court-appointed defense lawyers just 15 minutes
before the beginning of the trial on Apr. 5, said representatives of the
American University's Washington College of Law, which is acting on
behalf of the relatives before the IACHR. The trial lasted three days.

Cuban officials said death sentences were necessary to stop possible
mass migrations to the United States.

The petitioners are asking that Cuba be made to pay reparations to the
victims, which in past cases have amounted to $600,000. But Cuba does
not recognize the IACHR's powers because the island's OAS membership was
suspended in 1962. Seats reserved for Cuban officials to defend the
executions were empty Monday.

The IACHR argues that Cuban citizens still enjoy the protections of the
Inter-American Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument that Cuba has
ratified.

One of the men who testified said relatives of the three men harbored
anger but little hope. ''You have to suffer in silence,'' he said.

At the end of the ten-minute tape, a voice is heard telling the
relatives that they ''had the solidarity'' of the opposition movement in
Cuba.

''The whole world needs to hear this, that is what I want,'' the
grandmother responded.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12929227.htm