Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 271: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will raise the plight of the Miami Five wives at UN level. [34862/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The case to which the Deputy refers relates to five Cuban citizens who were convicted in the US in 2001 on charges ranging from espionage to first degree murder. A panel of three judges from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned the 2001 convictions on 9th August 2005 and ordered a retrial based on new evidence. The Miami District Attorney duly filed an appeal against the decision of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Following an appellate hearing on 14 February 2006, a 10-2 decision to uphold the 2001 convictions was issued on 9 August 2006.

It is my understanding that a number of appeals lodged on behalf of the defendants remain under active judicial review within the framework of the US domestic legal system. As I have previously informed the Deputy on several occasions, the Government has no standing in this matter, which is a bilateral consular question between the US and the Cuban authorities and, consequently, I do not intend to pursue this matter.

With regard to the question of family visits, as I have previously informed the Deputy, I am aware from the 2005 Report of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that, as of October 2005, sixty visas had been issued for visits by family members but that visas had not been granted to the wives of two of the convicted men on the stated grounds of US national security. I am also aware from media reports that the US authorities recently turned down further requests for visas from the two women in question. Again, I do not believe that this is a matter on which I have any standing and I do not intend, therefore, to raise it with the US authorities or at UN level.