US frees Cuban agent held 13 years for spying

The first of five Cuban agents jailed since 1998 in the United States on spy charges was freed from a Florida prison Friday in a case that has dogged ties between Washington and Havana for more than 10 years. Rene Gonzalez "was released earlier today" from the Marianna federal prison, his attorney Philip Horowitz told AFP. He did not provide details about where his client was headed, and said there will be "no further statements that I am aware of." The 55-year-old Cuban must remain on US soil for three years as part of a "supervised release" program -- a requirement that has infuriated Havana, which considers Gonzalez a national hero. The planned release has also angered US opponents of Cuba's communist government, like Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who has called Gonzalez a "villain." In February Gonzalez asked to be allowed to return to Cuba to be reunited with his wife and two daughters, but Judge Joan Lenard of the US District Court for Southern Florida rejected the request last month. Horowitz said his client can serve out the three years anywhere in the United States -- so he can leave Miami, a bastion of the Cuban exile community. But earlier in the week he slammed the "supervised release" program as punitive. "Our contention is that it's three years of additional punishment away from his family," said Horowitz, who added that Gonzalez's wife was deported and is not allowed to return to the United States. Miami-based newspaper El Nuevo Herald reported that Gonzalez was reunited with his two daughters and his father, who received US visas to be present when Gonzalez left prison. Havana has acknowledged that the so-called "Cuban Five" were intelligence agents but said their aim was not to spy on the US government but solely to gather information on "terrorist" plots by Cuban expatriates in Florida. Gonzalez, whose 15-year sentence was the lightest of the group, was arrested in 1998 with Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, and convicted on espionage charges in Miami in 2001. The men argued they did not receive a fair trial in Miami in 2001 because of strong anti-Castro sentiments there. On appeal, Labanino's life sentence was reduced to 30 years, Guerrero's life sentence was shortened to 22 years and Fernando Gonzalez's sentence was pared from 19 to 18 years. But Hernandez, who was also convicted of conspiracy to murder by supporting a plot to shoot down civilian aircraft in international waters that left four people dead, is serving two life sentences plus 15 years. The judge who denied Gonzalez's request to go home did so "without prejudice, giving us an opportunity to go back," said Horowitz, explaining that the judge can lift the order at any time if she is satisfied with his behavior. Typically, foreigners are deported from the United States to their home country once they have served their sentence, even when they are released on parole. But Gonzalez cannot be deported because he has dual US-Cuban citizenship. Gonzalez was born in Chicago but returned with his family to Cuba in 1961. Last week Cuba demanded Gonzalez's "immediate return," accusing US President Barack Obama's administration of waging a political vendetta. Meanwhile, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro expressed indignation that Gonzalez will be kept "at the mercy of unpunished murderers for three long years." In a newspaper column last week, he accused Washington of "engendering monsters like (Luis) Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch," Cuban exiles accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976. The Cuban Five case has fueled US-Cuban animosity for years. US politicians have used the case to press for continued tough sanctions on the island, while Cuban President Raul Castro has said he is willing to swap jailed political dissidents for the imprisoned men -- an idea Washington has rejected.