• Affirms U.S. lawyer Linda Backiel, member of the anti-terrorist fighters’ defense team

                                  JUAN DIEGO NUSA PEÑALVER .—AIN Special Service

                    GENEVA.— Linda Backiel, a U.S. lawyer who is supporting her colleague
                   Leonard Weinglass in Antonio Guerrero’s appeal to the Atlanta Court, spoke
                   here on a panel convened by non-governmental organizations to call the
                   international community’s attention to the barbarity of the U.S. judicial
                   system in the cases of the five political prisoners and to advance the
                   international campaign for a new, just and impartial trial.

                   For Backiel, Miami was organized to find the five Cubans guilty and it was
                   probably the most corrupt trial that she has witnessed in her professional
                   career, in spite of the fact that the eminent Puerto Rican lawyer has 30 years’
                   experience of political trials.

                   “The U.S. government,” she adds, “has acted as in the past in this case, but in
                   an even more cruel way. I have participated in trials of Puerto Rican
                   independence fighters and have seen the same libretto for cases such as this,
                   which utilizes isolation, a form of white torture, which leaves no trace but
                   destroys the spirit of those imprisoned.”

                   She recalled that during their interviews, potential jurors in the case of the Five
                   expressed fear for their lives if they were to declare a verdict different to the
                   one expected by the extreme right of Cuban origin in Miami.

                   “In other words, they were judged in an atmosphere of evident terror,” she
                   stated.

                   Backiel explained that another evident manipulation was the very nature of
                   the charges brought against the accused, including conspiracy to spy on the
                   United States or to conspire to commit murder, aimed at predisposing U.S.
                   public opinion.

                   Referring to their recent unjustified punishment, she affirmed that it occurred
                   for the sole purpose of blocking any possibility of duly organizing the appeal to
                   be brought before the Atlanta Court.

                   “That means we should be vigilant for the safety and physical integrity of these
                   worthy men… It is a desperate punishment aimed at breaking their spirit of
                   struggle and resistance and trying to prevent them from becoming symbols
                   and models for everyone,” Backiel concluded.