Chris Andrews (Dublin South East, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to share time with Deputy Finian McGrath. The Acting Chairman might tell me when I am halfway through the allotted time.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Chris Andrews (Dublin South East, Fianna Fail)
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I believe the case of the Miami Five is one of serious injustice and given our experience in Ireland of miscarriages of justice, this case resonates deeply with Irish people. The Miami Five were five Cubans who were sent to try to infiltrate Miami-based terrorist groups to prevent them from carrying out terrorist actions against the people of Cuba. The information they collected built up into a substantial intelligence dossier on the workings of the terrorist groups. The Cuban Government invited the FBI to Havana and presented it with 4,000 pages of documentary evidence on the activities of the groups concerned. While the Cubans felt confident this information would lead to arrests and prosecutions, instead of so doing the FBI arrested the five Cubans. The charges brought against them included travelling on false passports, failing to register as foreign agents, conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit crimes against the United States of America.

The trial was deeply flawed and failed to prove these men were guilty of the charges brought against them. The original trial was one of the longest ever held in the United States and the judge acknowledged that members of the jury had been intimidated. Moreover, before the trial, the men were held for 33 months without bail, during 17 of which they were held in solitary confinement. This punishment typically only is used to punish prisoners who are guilty of violent crimes after conviction and prison regulations in the United States generally permit a maximum of 60 days in solitary confinement.

Hundreds of NGOs from all around the world, including international human rights organisations, lawyers' groups, parliamentarians, trade unions and academics have called for an appeal of this case. However, the United States Supreme Court has declined such calls and has refused to provide a reason for its decision. Deputy Finian McGrath will agree with my call on the Government to address this miscarriage of justice at the highest diplomatic level and for the Minister for Foreign Affairs to raise the matter at European Council level.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I thank the Acting Chairman for the opportunity to again raise the case of the Miami Five and the huge injustice perpetrated against the Cuban people. I also thank Deputy Chris Andrews for sharing his time on this urgent matter. I today call on the Government and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to support the families of the Miami Five. I also dedicate this speech to the memory of the 3,748 and 2,099 Cubans killed and maimed, respectively, at the hands of US-based terrorists since 1959. This is not a figure one will hear in the so-called free Western world. This is a story of grave injustice against the Cuban people that has been ignored by the international media and our own so-called free press. I now call for action and an end to this injustice.

I visited Cuba, met the families of the Miami Five and told them I would raise their case on my return . In Cuba, there are posters and pictures of the Miami Five everywhere. They have the same respect and support as did our own Birmingham Six and Guildford Four and hence my support today. For the past 12 years, the five Cubans, namely, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González, have been serving long and unjust sentences in American prisons for the sole crime of defending Cuba from the actions of terrorist groups based in the United States. Their legal process has been ongoing for ten years without justice having been served, despite the recognition by both the Atlanta 11th Appeals Court and the Miami court that tried them that none of them has harmed the national security of the United States. During these years, they have endured many legal and human rights violations, including solitary confinement on various occasions without justified cause. In addition, they have experienced delays in authorising visas for their families, with the result that in most cases, they have been allowed an average of only one visit per year. I also note the systematic denial of visas by the Government of the United States to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, the wives of Gerardo Hernández and René González, respectively.

After 12 years in prison, it is time for the Obama Administration to feel the full weight of international demands and puts an end to this injustice and the suffering of these five men and their families. The international relations commission of the Cuban parliament has called on all parliamentarians of the world "to build another space for proposals on concrete actions directed at the United States government and Congress, to demand that their president releases these five Cuban anti-terrorists and grants visas to [their families]", to put an end to what Amnesty International has described as unnecessary punishment that goes beyond the norm for humane treatment of prisoners and the obligation of countries to respect family life. Finally, I call for action and support for the Miami Five to ensure their release as their only crime was to defend their country against evil people.

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Chris Andrews for raising this matter and both Deputies for their contributions. I am taking this Adjournment debate on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin.

The case to which the Deputies referred relates to five Cuban citizens, namely, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González, known as the Miami Five. They were arrested in September 1998 following a two-year FBI surveillance operation in the state of Florida. The five did not deny that they were working for the Cuban Government and stated that they had infiltrated and monitored the actions of anti-Cuban Government groups in Miami to prevent those groups from committing crimes of terror.

The five men were convicted in Miami in 2001 on charges ranging from espionage to first degree murder. The appeal against their convictions was heard in March 2004 in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. The basis of the appeal was that given alleged pressure exerted on jurors from the Cuban-American community in Miami, the trial venue did not allow the accused to enjoy their right to an impartial and fair trial. On 9 August 2005, the court found in their favour and ordered a new trial. Following this ruling, the Miami District Attorney duly filed an appeal. Subsequent to an appellate hearing on 14 February 2006, a ten to two decision to uphold the 2001 convictions was issued on 9 August 2006.

On 4 June 2008, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, issued its judgment on appeals lodged on behalf of the five. The court concluded that the appellants' arguments, which centred on the suppression of evidence, sovereign immunity, discovery, jury selection and the trial itself, were without merit and that there was sufficient evidence to support each conviction. The sentences of two of the defendants were affirmed, while the remaining three men were sent for re-sentencing and were given slightly reduced sentences.

The defendants' legal counsel lodged a petition with the US Supreme Court on 30 January 2009 requesting that it review their convictions on the basis that the five did not receive a fair trial because of strong anti-Castro sentiment in Miami. On 16 June 2009, the Supreme Court refused this request and upheld the convictions. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has told the House, most recently on 3 December, that the Government has no standing in this matter, which is a bilateral consular question between the US and Cuban authorities.

With regard to the question of family visits, visas have been issued to a number of family members in past years but have not been granted to the wives of two of the convicted men on the stated grounds of US national security. I am not in a position to assess the justification for this decision.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs discussed this matter with the then Foreign Minister Perez Roque during his visit to Cuba in February of last year, during which the latter stressed to our Minister, Deputy Martin, the importance the Cuban Government attaches to the release of the five.

These events must be seen against the backdrop of the bilateral relationship between Cuba and the US. While the US embargo on Cuba, first introduced in 1962 and repeatedly condemned by Ireland and the EU, continues to have a considerable impact on the social and economic development of Cuba, there are signs that the US is beginning to respond to calls from the international community for the normalisation of relations between the two countries, as evidenced by a number of steps taken by the US since the inauguration of the Obama Administration. These include the lifting of travel and remittance restrictions and the resumption of migration talks. I hope that these are but the first steps towards the ultimate resumption of friendly relations and a broader normalisation of contacts between the two neighbouring countries.

Ireland, together with its EU partners, is engaged in developing dialogue and co-operation with Cuba on a broad range of areas, these being political, including human rights, economic, social and cultural. Following the visit of the Minister, Deputy Martin, to Cuba last February, the first by an Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, we are now examining how we might strengthen our bilateral relationship with Cuba. Work is being taken forward with the Cuban authorities on that basis. Moreover, at the most recent EU foreign affairs Council discussion on Cuba in June 2009, foreign Ministers reaffirmed the Council's determination to pursue a result-oriented comprehensive dialogue with the Cuban authorities as well as with representatives of civil society and the peaceful pro-democracy opposition.