Posted on 06/20/2005 3:13:54 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
A U.S. judge has refused to move the request for asylum case of Cuban exile and Castro foe Luis Posada Carriles to a federal court in Florida from Texas.
Posada, who is wanted in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, is being detained in El Paso, but asked to move his immigration case to Miami because his lawyer is based there.
U.S. Immigration Judge William Abbott issued his decision on Thursday, said government spokesman Greg Gagne, but only notified the lawyers on Monday. Details of the decision were not yet available.
U.S. prosecutors, in a hearing last week, opposed the change of venue, citing security concerns in South Florida, where there are many Cuban-Americans said to be sympathetic to Posada.
Abbott's decision means that a bail hearing set for Friday, June 24, in his court will go on as scheduled, Gagne said.
Posada, 77, was arrested last month in Miami and moved to the El Paso detention center after he illegally entered the United States via the Mexico-Texas border.
Posada was a CIA operative who worked against Cuban leader Fidel Castro and later became a Venezuelan citizen and security official.
He was accused of masterminding the airliner bombing that killed 73 people, but was never convicted and escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985.
Posada has denied involvement in the bombing, but Venezuela has asked for his extradition from the United States to face charges.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a frequent U.S. critic, and his ally Castro have accused Washington of protecting Posada because of his CIA background.
Terrorists are terrorists - regardless of where they come from.
He was a CIA operative which meant he had the blessing from the U.S. Government to do whatever we needed him to do. His only failure was to believe the U.S. Government would not throw him to the wolves in the end. Also, we will never be made privy to the truth (how much the U.S. was mixed up in all this).
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