Actualité - Terrorist Posada Could Be Set Free in US

Washington, September 12 — International terrorist Luis Posada Carriles could be freed within a month in the United States if the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office accepts a request by a federal magistrate who recommended his release from prison, the local press reported Tuesday.

The Miami Herald reported that the request was made by Judge Norbert Garney in Texas, citing a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2001, forbidding indefinite detention of foreigners who cannot be deported.

Posada Carriles is currently at a detention center in El Paso, Texas, where he has been detained since May 2005 after making a public appearance in Miami and proving his illegal entrance into the US from Mexico.

To date, Posada has only been prosecuted for the crime of illegal entry, despite an extradition request presented by Venezuela. The South American country, where Posada is a naturalized citizen, wants to try him for planning the mid-air explosion of a Cuban commercial airliner that killed 73 people in October 1976.

Posada has also admitted to organizing a series of bomb attacks in Havana hotels in 1997, in which Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo was killed.

Garney recommended Posada’s release after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to classify him as a terrorist.

Several countries have refused to accept Posada and Judge Garney said he should be given his freedom under federal supervision. If he walks, he will join several other known terrorists living freely in southern Florida.

(Granma)