Their lawyers protest isolation

 BY LUISA YANEZ

 Five Cuban intelligence agents convicted last month of spying for Havana have been removed from the general prison population at the Federal Detention Center in Miami and placed into what inmates call "the hole,'' lawyers for the men confirmed Sunday.

 ``We're trying to get an explanation from prison officials as to why they have taken this action,'' said defense attorney Jack Blumenfeld, who represents Antonio Guerrero, convicted on June 8 of being part of the spy ring dubbed Red Avispa or Wasp Network. ``These men have been nothing but model prisoners.''

 Blumenfeld and fellow attorney Philip Horowitz said they learned last week that their clients had been moved and contacted Bureau of Prisons' officials seeking an
 explanation.

 ``I'm still waiting to hear back,'' said Blumenfeld.

 A spokesperson for the federal prison in downtown Miami could not be reached for comment. The five convicted spies -- Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González -- were transferred into the ``the hole'' or the Special Housing Unit Tuesday morning, the attorneys said.

 There, they are held in a form of solitary confinement in individual cells. Most of their personal belongings are taken away and visits with attorneys, relatives and friends are curtailed and conducted through a partition.

 Inmates are usually placed in this type of confinement because of disciplinary problems or for their own safety. They may also be segregated for security reasons.

 Until recently, the men were allowed to have open visits from their lawyers, relatives and friends and could participate in activities with other inmates. Guerrero, for one, took part in a jailhouse chess tournament during his trial and won, Blumenfeld said.

 Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller, the lead prosecutor during the six-month spy trial, declined to comment on Sunday.

 Aloyma Sanchez, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, referred inquiries to the Bureau of Prisons.

 ``I don't understand why they had to suddenly move them,'' said attorney Horowitz, who represents René González. ``They were convicted three weeks ago, and if this was about their safety, they would have done its earlier. I'd like to know the reason.''

 The move by prison officials comes on the heels of reports of a letter, allegedly written by the spies from their cells in Miami, which then made its way to Cuba some 10 days ago.

 LETTER IN GRANMA

 Strident in tone, the letter ran in Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba's Communist Party, and also on its website on June 20.

 ``The defendants in this trial are in no way repentant for what we have done to defend our country,'' the letter said. ``We declare ourselves not guilty and simply take
 comfort in the fact that we have honored our duty to our people and our homeland.''

 Whether one or all the spies actually penned the letter, and, if it really reached the Cuban government is unknown. Blumenfeld said the spies have admitted writing the letter, which could have been taken out of the detention center and routed to Cuba.

 Using the letter as a springboard, the Cuban government, which has been casting the men as heroes who were monitoring the activities of militant Cuban exiles, called their prosecution a "revolting injustice.''

 On Saturday, Raúl Castro led 50,000 Cubans at a rally asking for the release of the convicted spies. The event is part of an escalating ``free the five'' campaign by the island, reminiscent of the Elián González days.

 The moving of the spies also coincided with last week's visit to South Florida of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the country's top lawman. While in Miami, Ashcroft was lobbied by Cuban exiles to indict Fidel Castro for the 1996 shoot-down by Cuban MiG fighters of four Brothers to the Rescue fliers. One of the spies, Hernández, was convicted on murder conspiracy charges stemming from the Brothers' deaths.

 Joe Garcia, director of the Cuban American National Foundation, which organized the meeting with Ashcroft on Tuesday, said the Cuban newspaper Granma blamed the foundation for the spies' new predicament.

 "They said that during our private meetings with the attorney general we asked him to throw the spies in the hole,'' Garcia said Sunday. ``That's comical. As if we would waste Mr. Ashcroft's time with such silliness. That's just part of the communist mentality.''

 Horowitz said the new setup means he has limited access to his client as they are preparing for the sentencing phase, set to stretch from Sept. 24 thru Oct. 2.

 On Friday, after making special arrangements, Horowitz said he was able to meet with González inside the prison.

 "There are a lot of layers of security now, and we have no face-to-face, across-the-table type of contact; it's all through a glass,'' Horowitz said. Attorneys for the other spies could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

 News that the five men were transferred to ``the hole'' was published in Granma on Friday. The newspaper describes the unit as ``cells about 15 by 7 feet, with poorly finished concrete floors, a concrete table and bench, a cot, a toilet and a small metal wash basin.''

 BELONGINGS TAKEN

 The Granma article said the men were ``stripped of all their belongings, including letters, photos, poems, a typewriter and even the smallest pencil.'' Prison authorities
 "took away their radios and restricted all telephone calls.'' The article did not cite a source for the account.

 Those conditions violate human rights standards of the United Nations and the American Constitution, Granma said, hinting that a formal complaint will be made by the five Cubans' attorneys.

 ``We haven't decided what action to take until we get more information,'' Blumenfeld said.

 The "hole'' is not new to the spies, Blumenfeld said. For the first 17 months of their incarceration after their September 1998 arrest, the the five men were kept in the
 Special Housing Unit, away from the main inmate population for their own safety, Blumenfeld said.

 They were placed in the general population in February 2000 and remained there until last week.

 Convicted of 23-spy-related charges, Hernández, Guerrero and Labañino face maximum sentences of life in prison. The two Gonzálezes, who are not related, face
 penalties of at least 15 years each.

                                    © 2001