Managua to Start Hasenfus Trial Monday

Eugene Hasenfus, the American who was shot down over Nicaragua in a plane carrying supplies to U.S.-backed rebels, will go on trial Monday before a Sandinista revolutionary court, the Nicaraguan government announced Thursday.

The specific charges against him were not announced, but the statement by the Nicaraguan Justice Ministry said prosecutors will list them when the trial begins before the three-judge panel. The United States has already denounced the tribunal as “a kangaroo court.”

The ministry’s statement said Hasenfus violated Nicaragua’s public order and security laws when he smuggled weapons into the country to the rebels, called contras, who are fighting to oust the leftist Sandinista government. Hasenfus, of Marinette, Wis., could be sentenced to up to 30 years in jail if convicted.

The trial will be held before the Popular Anti-Somocista Tribunals, which were created in 1983 to speed up prosecutions of Nicaraguans accused of undermining the rule of the leftist Sandinista government here. Opponents of the Sandinistas are officially classified as Somocistas, after the name of the dictator overthrown by the Sandinistas in 1979, Anastasio Somoza.

Thursday’s announcement made clear that not only Hasenfus but Reagan Administration policy toward Nicaragua will be put on trial.

The announcement from Nicaragua’s Justice Ministry said, “The attorney general will present before the Popular Anti-Somocista Tribunal the formal accusations of the government of Nicaragua for acts committed by Eugene Hasenfus, within the framework of the aggression that the United States of America imposes on the people of Nicaragua.”

The tribunal has been criticized here and abroad for railroading cases to a verdict with little regard for legal processes. The conviction record of the court is impressive: Last year and this, the tribunal convicted 423 out of 433 defendants brought before it.

“We know he won’t get a fair trial, but we hope we will be able to get him as much representation as possible,” said Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American Affairs, who accompanied Secretary of State George P. Shultz on a visit to El Salvador.

But Abrams said that the U.S. government will not pay for Hasenfus’ defense.

Hasenfus, 44, was a crew member aboard a C-123 transport plane shot down by Sandinista soldiers on Oct. 5. A former Marine, Hasenfus joined the supply operation after being laid off from a steelworker’s job.

Two other Americans and a Nicaraguan aboard the C-123 were killed in the crash, but Hasenfus survived by parachuting.

Hasenfus is imprisoned here, and Sandinista security authorities have interrogated him several times since he was captured in southern Nicaragua.

It is not clear where his hearing will take place. The tribunal courtroom, in a low building about a mile from the U.S. Embassy, is the size of a walk-in closet and holds two desks and a couple of chairs.

After the charges are filed Monday, the defense will be given two days to file an answer to them. There is then an eight-day period to take testimony and review the evidence, mostly written reports.

Afterwards, either the defense or prosecution can ask for four more days of hearings. Sentencing can take up to three days.

The tribunal is presided over by a judge and two auxiliary lay magistrates. The auxiliary judges are usually Sandinista sympathizers drawn from the government’s many support organizations, including unions, peasant groups and neighborhood units.

Only Hasenfus is being charged, Justice Ministry sources said. In the past, leaders of the contras, including their military head, Enrique Bermudez, have been tried and convicted in absentia.

The Hasenfus trial could have ramifications in the United States, where congressional elections are scheduled in November. Congress this year voted $100 million in aid for the contras, whom the United States have supported off and on since 1981.