U.S. looks into Cuban spy cases

MIAMI, June 19 (UPI) -- A U.S. Supreme Court decision to toss out without comment an appeal by five Cubans who were convicted in 2001 for their roles in a Florida spy network has been denounced by Cuba as a "great insult."

Lawyers for the men failed to convince the court that their original convictions in Miami for spying on prominent Cuban-American exile leaders and U.S. military bases were politically charged. Their central argument was that justice was not done, because it had been impossible to get a fair hearing from a jury in the capital of the Cuban exile community.

In another spy case, a former State Department employee and his wife who are accused of spying for Havana for nearly 30 years were told this week they would await trial in a Washington jail without bail.

In Havana the Supreme Court decision to uphold the lower court ruling on the five Cubans was called a great insult, while Cuban Parliament leader Ricardo Alarcon said the United States is "an ignorant lion."

Cuban leader Raul Castro has offered to exchange some 200 prisoners for the men, who are seen as heroes on the island.

The arrest in 1998 and later conviction of the five -- Ruben Campa, also known as Fernando Gonzalez; Rene Gonzalez; Antonio Guerrero; Luis Medina, also known as Ramon Labanino; and Gerardo Hernandez -- has attracted huge international attention.

The group was led by Hernandez, who was also convicted of being behind the shooting down by Cuban fighter planes of two Brothers to the Rescue Cessna airplanes over the Florida Straits in 1996 resulting in four deaths. The organization belonged to an anti-government group that had dropped anti-Castro leaflets over Cuba.

La Red Avispa, or The Wasp Network, spy ring had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and other Miami-area exile groups.

Directed out of Havana for the Fidel Castro regime, the spies spread disinformation and tried to get intelligence about the U.S. military.

Eventually the ring was uncovered and terminated by U.S. agents.

Despite Cuban objections to the Supreme Court decision, government officials in Havana say upcoming immigration talks between the island and the United States will go ahead.

In the Washington spy investigation of the couple a magistrate Wednesday ruled that Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and Gwendolyn Myers, 71, will stay in jail without bail after investigators told the court they planned to sail to the Caribbean.

The couple is being charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents for the Cuban government, wire fraud and passing secret information to Cuba.

The State Department has described Kendall Myers as a Bureau of Intelligence and Research "upper-level civil service employee." Their motive was not given and the State Department did not say what they may have passed to their Cuban handlers.

A trial date has yet to be set. Conviction on all three charges carries a 35-year jail term.