Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 765: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the campaign backed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions regarding the conduct of trials against persons (details supplied); if Irish diplomatic representatives have sought a briefing on these cases or expressed concern regarding aspects of the proceedings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37899/09]

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 were sent for re-sentencing. The re-sentencing hearing for two of these men was recently postponed while the third was sentenced on 13 October.

While I am aware of the campaign backed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, 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. I did, however, have an exchange on such matters with Minister Pérez Roque during my visit to Cuba in February, during which he stressed to me the importance which the Cuban government attaches to the release of the so-called Miami Five.