6 Cubans Guilty of Air Piracy in Hijacking Case

Six Cuban men accused of hijacking a World War II-era passenger plane to the United States were found guilty of air piracy Thursday in a case that federal officials hoped would be a warning to other Cubans tempted to flee the same way.

A federal jury in Key West, Fla., rejected a defense claim that the hijacking was a “freedom flight” from the communist-ruled island, staged with the cooperation of the plane’s crew. Prosecutors had dismissed that assertion as “laughable.”

Air piracy carries a mandatory 20-year prison term and the possibility of a life sentence.

On March 19, a propeller-driven DC-3 carrying 37 people was diverted from Cuba’s Isle of Youth to the United States. The pilot of the Cuban domestic airliner testified during the trial that the hijackers had battered down the cockpit door and put a knife to his throat.

The plane, with a U.S. fighter escort, landed in Key West without further incident, and the suspects surrendered to authorities. Fourteen other people aboard opted to remain in the United States.

Within two weeks, another Cuban plane was diverted to Key West, and a group of Cubans tried to hijack a ferry and sail it to Miami. Cuban authorities were outraged, and President Fidel Castro accused the United States of welcoming hijackers as heroes.

In response, the chief American diplomat in Havana, James Cason, issued an unusual public statement that any Cuban reaching U.S. shores in a commandeered boat or aircraft would not be granted asylum, but instead would be tried as a criminal. Marcos D. Jiminez, the U.S. attorney in Miami, vowed to prosecute any hijacker without regard to his or her country of origin.

“The U.S. wants to send the message to the Cuban government and to the Cubans that using forceful means to leave the island won’t be allowed,” Hans de Salas, a researcher at the University of Miami’s institute for Cuban studies, said after Thursday’s verdict. “These hijackers were simply among many Cubans who want to leave the island because of the unbearable conditions there.”

U.S. officials say they are worried about the loss of life that could result from a hijacking. They also are wary of provoking Castro into a repeat of the 1980 Mariel boat lift, when the communist leader allowed 125,000 people to leave Cuba, swamping the ability of the U.S. government and Florida state agencies to cope.

“The U.S. policy of containment and enforcing the status quo is among the critical issues at the moment,” De Salas said. “Mass migration is a threat by Cuba against the U.S. Encouraging their people to leave en masse could create an unbearable burden and compromise the security of the U.S.”

However, for political reasons, the Bush administration also must be mindful of the desires of Cuban Americans, a loyal Republican constituency. Some in Miami’s Cuban community were angered by the decision of the U.S. district judge in the hijacking trial, James Lawrence King, not to allow the defendants to use political repression or economic woes as justification for their desperate acts.

“Many Cubans live under such conditions, yet few hijack planes,” King ruled last month.

Found guilty were accused ringleader Alexis Norneilla Morales, 31; Eduardo Javier Mejia Morales, 26; Yainer Olivares Samon, 21; Neudis Infantes Hernandez, 31; Alvenis Arias-Izquierdo, 24; and Miakel Guerra Morales, 31. Sentencing is set for Feb. 26.

After the verdict, which the jury took six hours to reach, Jimenez said that “although these cases are very difficult in light of the situation in Cuba, the law does not permit anyone, no matter what the circumstances, to enter our country through force or violence.”

Defense attorneys said they planned to appeal. “Our clients are extremely heartbroken and disappointed, but they still have faith in the system and that the appellate process will carry them through,” Mario Cano, one of the defense lawyers, told reporters.

Outside the courthouse, some family members wept. Wives of some of the defendants said their husbands were victims of injustice, because jurors were not allowed to hear about the grinding poverty they endured in Cuba. Mejia Morales’ wife, Emma Lopez, said Castro himself orchestrated the guilty verdicts by not letting attorneys meet with potential defense witnesses in Cuba.

Her husband, a sobbing Lopez told reporters, “is innocent, and he’s locked up here unjustly.”

Confessions by three of the defendants were thrown out during trial because FBI agents didn’t inform them they had the right to remain silent at the time of their arrest.

In September, a Cuban architect who last spring used dummy hand grenades to force a Soviet-made Cuban airliner to fly to Key West, was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison for air piracy.

The day after that hijacking, a group of Cuban men tried to commandeer the passenger ferry but failed. Three of those accused hijackers were given a summary trial by a Cuban court and executed.