UN High Official Receives Wife of Gerardo Hernandez

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Flavia Pansieri, received Adriana Pérez, the wife of Gerardo Hernández, one of the five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unfairly held in US prisons.

In their meeting, Adriana urged again for a humanitarian gesture from the US government that would require ethics and political willpower, to release the three Cuban patriots still in US prisons.

The Cuban Five, as they are internationally known, were arrested in 1998 and given unfairly harsh sentences for monitoring Miami-based terrorist groups operating against Cuba.

Two of them, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, left prison after fully serving their sentences, but Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero remain in prison.

In her dialogue with the UN official, Adriana provided strong, convincing evidence of damages caused to the physical and mental health of Gerardo and his comrades by so many years in jail.

She also made emphasis on the fact that the habeas corpus filed for Gerardo over two years ago remains unanswered.

Adriana also referred to the suffering that for them and their relatives has represented living separated for such a long time, with limitations of all kinds, and conveyed the wish of reunification of the defendants’ old mothers with their sons.

In the coming days, Adriana Perez, on behalf of relatives of The Cuban Five, will continue an extensive program of interviews aimed at spreading the trhuth on their case and demand their immediate release, says a note from the permanent mission of Cuba in Geneva.