Judge questions role of wife in alleged Cuba spy tandem

Judge questions role of wife in alleged Cuba spy tandem
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-01 08:43

A federal judge raised questions about the role of a Florida
International University employee accused along with her professor
husband of working as agents of the Cuban govement, suggesting that the
charges amounted to "character assassination" against her.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said Wednesday it was unfair to
Elsa Alvarez to assume that she was involved in all of the activities of
her husband, Carlos Alvarez, particularly since there is substantial
evidence indicating she was reluctant from the beginning and later
opposed continuing their alleged surveillance on behalf of Cuba.

"There's a lot of character assassination as to the wife because of what
you have on the husband," Moore said at a hearing. "It strengthens your
case if you can just lump her in there."

Moore's comments came during a three-hour hearing on a request by Elsa
Alvarez's lawyers that she be released on bail before trial scheduled in
early 2007. Moore did not issue an immediate ruling, but did direct
attorneys to draw up a tentative order providing for bail of at least
$250,000 (euro194,280).

The couple is charged with failing to register as agents of a foreign
government. Prosecutors contend that spied for Cuban President Fidel
Castro's government for decades, mainly reporting on activities of
Miami's large Cuban-American exile community and U.S. political
developments.

Both have pleaded not guilty and have been held without bail since their
arrests in early January. Prosecutors have alleged they used their
positions at FIU _ she as social program coordinator, he as a psychology
professor _ as cover.

Testimony revealed Wednesday that during three days of interviews with
the FBI last summer, Carlos Alvarez repeatedly told agents that his wife
was not directly involved in communications _ using coded messages on a
short-wave radio _ with their Cuban intelligence service handlers.

In fact, according to transcripts of those interviews, Elsa Alvarez grew
increasingly worried about the contacts and hoped to end them.

"Elsa has been the person who wanted me to break with all of this for
many years," Carlos Alvarez told FBI agents. "I'm not saying it as a
husband defending a wife. But there's nothing there."

Brian Frazier, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case,
acknowledged that the evidence is "mixed" about Elsa Alvarez's
activities on behalf of Cuba. But he said she did attend a training
session with Cuban handlers with her husband in Mexico in the mid-1980s
and received a medal for her work while on a trip to Cuba in 1991.

The evidence, Frazier said, "is greater as to Mr. Alvarez than to his
wife. But it's important to understand how these husband-and-wife teams
work and how they aided and abetted each other."

A key question for Moore is whether Elsa Alvarez is a risk to flee the
country if released on bail. FBI agent Albert Alonso, the chief
investigator on the case, testified that a Cuban passport in Carlos
Alvarez's name was found at their Miami home, but nothing in Elsa
Alvarez's name.

There was also no evidence of false travel documents or identities,
which are common in espionage and similar cases, Alonso said. But he
added that Cuba has frequently recruited married couples as spies
because of their loyalty to each other.

"It's a family unit. They trust each other. Nobody else knows about them
but themselves," Alonso said.

Testimony also disclosed Wednesday that the FBI planted a listening
device in the couple's bedroom in at least 2001 and possibly earlier.
But in all of those taped conversations, Alonso said there was no
discussion of fleeing to Cuba if the couple was caught, or of such
things as foreign bank accounts or fake travel document

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-06/01/content_605567.htm