Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will raise the case of the Miami Five with the new Administration in the United States to urge it in the short term to issue visas in order that the families of the wrongly detained men can visit them in prison and ultimately make provision for a re-trial in view of the moves made by President Obama regarding political prisoners in the form of the announced closure of Guantanamo Bay. [5244/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The case to which the Deputy refers relates to five Cuban men, known as the Miami Five, who were convicted in the US in 2001 on charges ranging from espionage to first degree murder. On 4 June 2008, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, issued its judgement on appeals lodged on behalf of the five.

The Circuit 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 have been sent for re-sentencing.

It is my understanding that the defendants' legal counsel lodged a petition to the US Supreme Court on 30 January requesting that the Court hear an appeal to the cases against these five individuals. As I have previously stated, 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 the US administration.

With regard to the question of family visits, as I have previously stated to the House, I am aware that visas have been issues to a number of family members in past years but that visas have not been granted to the wives of the two of the convicted men on the stated grounds of US national security. Again, I do not believe that this is a matter in which I have any standing and I do not intend, therefore, to raise it with the US authorities.