MIAMI, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The first of five Cuban spies is set to be released from prison in Florida, but he will not be able to return to Cuba for three years.
Rene Gonzalez, imprisoned for 13 years for spying on anti-Fidel Castro groups in Miami, will be released from a federal prison in northern Florida Friday, The Miami Herald reported.
He will not be able to return to Cuba, however, as U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard ruled Gonzalez, 55, must serve his three years of probation in the United States.
Gonzalez's lawyer is requesting the man serve his probation in Cuba so he can be reunited with his family.
"He has no family in the United States," said attorney Philip Horowitz. "His goal is to return home to Cuba -- home to [wife] Olga, home to [daughters] Irma and Ivette."
Miami prosecutors strongly oppose the request.
"Unbelievably, [prosecutors] want Rene to remain in the United States to serve his three years of supervised release," Horowitz said. "Our contention is that it's three years of additional punishment away from his family."
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro responded to Lenard's ruling, saying the decision to bar Gonzalez from leaving the United States is "brutal, blundering and expected."
"This is how the empire responds to the increasing demand around the world for their freedom," Castro wrote. "If it weren't so, the empire would cease to be an empire and [President] Obama would cease to be stupid."
Gonzalez was convicted in 2001 of conspiring and acting as a Castro agent. He was charged as part of a 14-member ring called La Red Avispa, the Wasp Network, linked to the 1996 shoot-down of two planes carrying Cuban exile groups over international waters.
Four other spies were convicted in the case and are serving sentences ranging from 18 years to life in prison.
