MIAMI, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- A federal judge reduced the sentence for a convicted Cuban spy Tuesday from life in prison to 30 years.
An appeals court had ordered the sentence reduction for Ramon Labanino and another member of the Cuban Five, who had been sentenced to 19 years. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard cut only a year from the sentence she originally gave Fernando Gonzalez, The Miami Herald reported.
Labanino, 46, and Gonzalez, 46, were arrested in 1998 with eight other members of the "Wasp" network. The group was blamed for providing the information that allowed Cuba to shoot down two planes in 1996 operated by the group Brothers in Exile, which were to scatter leaflets over Cuba.
In 2001, Labanino was convicted of supervising a group trying to infiltrate military installations in South Florida and of stealing the identities of dead U.S. citizens.
His lawyer and prosecutors agreed on the 30-year sentence.
Mirta Mendez, whose brother Carlos Costa was on one of the planes in 1996, attended the sentencing with her parents. She said she accepts the sentence reduction.
"By the time he gets out of prison, a good portion of his life will be gone," said Mendez. "But no matter what happens, it won't bring my brother back."
