Convicted Cuban spy to be resentenced Tuesday
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
A convicted Cuban intelligence agent who infiltrated the Boca Chica
Naval Air Station in Key West -- but didn't obtain or pass along state
secrets to his handlers in Havana -- could see his life sentence reduced
to 20 years on Tuesday.
Antonio Guerrero, convicted of espionage conspiracy in the highly
publicized prosecution of the so-called ``Cuban Five'' spy defendants in
2001, has reached an agreement with the U.S. attorney's office to lower
his sentence.
The agreement still must be accepted by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard.
Last year, she was criticized by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in Atlanta for imposing the life sentence, which the court considered
excessive because of insufficient evidence of harm to national security.
In court filings, prosecutors said a 20-year sentence would be
``reasonable'' -- despite contending that Guerrero ``agreed to provide
information, including United States national defense information, on
the military installation to Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence.''
The defendant's attorney, Leonard Weinglass, agreed that the 20-year
sentence would be ``reasonable,'' but stressed the appeals court's
finding that ``no top secret information was actually gathered and
transmitted.''
Weinglass, in a court filing, said that Guerrero, incarcerated since his
arrest in 1998, has had a solid record while serving his life sentence
at a maximum security prison in Florence, Colo. Since 2002, he has
worked as a tutor, teaching English as a second language and GED classes
for Spanish students.
``He is always respectful toward the staff and other inmates and has
never caused any problems within the department,'' John Bellantoni, the
prison's supervisor of education, wrote the court. ``He is a very
intelligent individual who has used his abilities in a positive way
while incarcerated by tutoring many students over the past six years.''
The Atlanta appeals court also ordered the trial judge to redo her
sentences for two other defendants convicted in the ``Wasp'' spy
network: Ramón Labañino, who also received a life sentence for the
espionage conspiracy, and Fernando González, who got 19 years for acting
as an agent of the Cuban government.
The resentencings of those two defendants have been postponed because of
a dispute over espionage damage assessments that could affect their
prison terms. No date has been set.
The decade-old case has been steeped in controversy because prosecutors
argued the Wasp spy network was linked to the Cuban government's 1996
shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over the Florida Straits.
In a 2-1 vote, the panel upheld the central conviction and life sentence
of the one defendant convicted by the Miami federal jury in the
shoot-down murder conspiracy, Gerardo Hernández. He was held responsible
for the deaths of three Cuban Americans and a Cuban exile who were
killed Feb. 24, 1996, when Cuban fighter jets shot down two of their
planes over international waters.
Convicted Cuban spy to be resentenced Tuesday - Breaking News - Mobile -
MiamiHerald.com (13 October 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/1460/story/1280486.html
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