2-7-07, 12:22 pm

On the 31st of January, the Government of the United States used another legal subterfuge to avoid arraigning Luis Posada Carriles for what he really is: a criminal and a terrorist.

Our people will recall that on 15 January last, in response to the indictment by the Government of the United States of Luis Posada Carriles on 11 January 2007, on the charges of committing fraud and having lied in his application for naturalisation in the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly stated that it hoped that 'the indictment of terrorist Posada Carriles on the minor charges of migratory infringement will not become a smoke screen used to further his impunity from the serious crime of terrorism'.

The Government of the United States should have presented its case before February 1st to Judge Philip Martinez in El Paso, Texas, in order to prevent the acceptance of the habeas corpus motion presented by defence council of the infamous terrorist and that, if carried, would have entailed his release. It was to be expected, thus, that the U.S. Government would have indicted Posada Carriles for terrorism before February 1st for which, as the already mentioned Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states, 'it has all the evidence', statement that the Ministry now reiterates once again.

Even, on 5 October 2006, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States, had informed Luis Posada Carriles that he would remain under federal custody because 'you have a history of engaging in criminal activity, and of associating with individuals and organisations involved in criminal activity that promote and use terrorist violence'.

Nevertheless, on 31st January last, the Office of the U.S. Attorney General presented a motion to dismiss the habeas corpus petition as moot, only arguing that Posada Carriles is not now under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, but of the Justice Department as a consequence of the legal process initiated on 11 January this year for committing fraud and false testimony. In other words, the argument of the Government of the United

2. States implies that Posada Carriles cannot be released not because he is a terrorist, but because he is a liar.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminds the Government of the United States that Article 7 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, signed in Montreal on 23 September 1971, of which the United States is a State Party, establishes that 'The Contracting State in the territory of which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the offence was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution'.

Similar provision is contained in the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, that entered into force on 23 May 2001, and to which the U.S. is also a State Party.

The Ministry of foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Cuban people and of the families of the victims, reminds the President of the United States, George W. Bush, his own words on 26 August 2003 when he said in St. Louis, Missouri that 'if you harbour a terrorist, if you support a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists'.

Havana, February 5, 2007