[A-List] Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles released on bail

[Leigh Meyers <the.buffalo.in.the.midst@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Anti-Castro militant released from US custody on bail
Leslie Schulman at 5:04 PM ET

[JURIST] Cuban anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles> [Wikipedia profile; 
JURIST news archive 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/jurist_search.php?q=Carriles>] posted bond 
and was released from a New Mexico jail on Thursday after ongoing debate 
about his release. Carriles, 79, a former CIA operative trained by the 
US for the failed anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, was arrested 
in 2005 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/05/cuban-bombing-suspect-arrested-in.php> 
[JURIST report; DOJ press release 
<http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/January/07_nsd_011.html>] for 
illegally entering the United States and had been under the custody of 
immigration officials. Earlier this month, US District Judge Kathleen 
Cardone ruled that Carriles should be released 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/us-judge-rules-anti-castro-militant.php> 
[JURIST report], and set bail at $250,000. Federal prosecutors filed an 
emergency motion appealing the ruling, to keep him in jail pending his 
immigration trial. On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth 
Circuit ruled that Carriles could post bond and be released 
<http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20070417_ap_courtgovtcantholdcubanmilitant.html> 
[AP report], after ordering a temporary injunction Friday blocking his 
release 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/federal-appeals-court-blocks-bail-for.php> 
[JURIST report] until a final ruling this week. Carriles will remain 
under house arrest and electronic surveillance, as required by the court 
order.

Carriles is due to be deported for entering the US illegally. A US 
immigration judge delayed his deportation in 2005 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/us-judge-prevents-deportation-of-cuban.php> 
[JURIST report], after having determined that Carriles cannot be sent to 
Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, or to Cuba, the country of 
his birth, for fears that he would be tortured. Carriles is accused of 
orchestrating the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_455> [Wikipedia 
backgrounder], as well as numerous assassination attempts on Cuban 
President Fidel Castro, and has previously sought asylum in the US. 
Earlier this week, a lawyer representing the government of Venezuela 
accused the US of preventing Carriles' extradition 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/venezuela-lawyer-says-us-obstructing.php> 
[JURIST report] and obstructing justice. Castro issued a statement 
condemning the district court's ruling 
<http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/04/castro-slams-us-court-order-freeing.php> 
[JURIST report]. Carriles is wanted in both countries on terrorism 
charges. AP has more 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/19/ap/national/printable2706956.shtml>.