BY LUISA YANEZ

 Attorneys for five convicted Cuban spies -- held since June in special confinement at the Federal Detention Center -- have asked a judge to allow Cuban government officials to visit them this week, according to motions filed in Miami federal court.

 If approved, the meeting would be the first between the five and Cuban officials since the Wasp Network spy ring was squashed in 1998, said assistant federal public defender Joaquín Méndez.

 ``They have the right to such a meeting, the same way Americans held in foreign jails have the right to meet with representatives from their consulate,'' said Méndez, who cited the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and their right to protection against cruel and unusual punishment in his motion.

 It also included a June 29 letter from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., to the State Department. In it, the Cubans requested immediate ``consular access'' for José Anselmo López Perera, first secretary and consul, and Luis Adolfo Morales Rodríguez, short-term temporary support officer at the interests section.

 Luis Fernández, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section, said Monday that other foreign nationals jailed in the United States are granted such meetings.

 ``As Cuban citizens held in an American jail, they have that right, too,'' he said.

 Before any meeting can take place, the spies must be moved out of the Special Housing Unit and back to the prison's general population. The five were put into the unit for an unspecified reason June 26.

 In motions filed last week, Méndez asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard to order their transfers.

 The five are awaiting sentencing.

 After the six-month trial, a Miami jury convicted the group of espionage June 8. One of them was also convicted of a single count of murder conspiracy.

 MONITORED GROUPS

 Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González were found guilty of monitoring U.S. military installations, some in the Florida Keys, and Cuban exile groups in Miami.

 Hernández also was convicted of conspiracy in the 1996 shoot-down of four Brothers to the Rescue fliers.

 Hernández, Labañino and Guerrero face maximum sentences of life in prison. Fernando González and René González, who are not related, face up to 10 years behind bars.

 Sentencing hearings are set to start in late September.

 Numerous requests to allow a meeting between the five and representatives of their government have been ignored by the Bureau of Prisons, said lead defense attorney Paul McKenna.

 Barry Sabin, first assistant U.S. attorney, said Monday that he would not elaborate on the U.S. government's position on the proposed visit from Cuban officials.

 ``We'll file our response to their motion in court,'' he said.

 SECURITY FEARS

 Eighteen days after their convictions, federal prison officials moved the five men into the Special Housing Unit, or ``the hole,'' as inmates have nicknamed the section. In a one-sentence statement, officials said the move was not related to behavior problems, traditionally the reason that inmates are placed there.

 Attorney Jack Blumenfeld, who represents Guerrero, said his client was told the move was prompted by security fears sparked by growing sentiment in Cuba that the spies are being unjustly held.

 In Cuba, the verdicts have been described as a ``revolting injustice.''

 In the motion, Méndez, who represents Fernando González but filed the motion on behalf of all five, said their ability to prepare for their sentencing is being hampered by their confinement. ``They are ``locked up in a small, windowless cells 23 hours a day. . . . They are required to eat and use the toilet in the same cell and are denied numerous basic rights and privileges afforded to inmates in the general population.'' No hearing date has been set.

 Five other spies arrested made plea bargains requiring them to cooperate with the prosecution. The Cuban government officials have made no request to speak to them.

                                    © 2001