BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA

Attorneys for five Cubans imprisoned in the United States on espionage charges will make a final appeal to the Supreme Court this week, seeking their release, but they have not ruled out ''political negotiations'' in the case.

The appeal of the spies, known as the ''Cuban Five,'' follows recent statements by Cuban leader Raúl Castro that he would be willing to free dissidents and political prisoners in Cuba in exchange for the release of the five.

Paul McKenna, attorney for Gerardo Hernandez, a Cuban agent sentenced to two consecutive life terms, believes the exchange proposal should not be dismissed.

''I'm not a politician nor do I want to get involved in political affairs, but it would be naive to say [the exchange] is not a possible option,'' McKenna said. ``It wouldn't be the first time that prisoner exchanges have occurred. There are precedents during the Cold War era.''

Already, three of the imprisoned spies, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, may receive a new sentence from the Miami court, according to a ruling last June by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The other convicted spies are Hernandez and Luis Medina.

Hernandez was sentenced for conspiracy to murder four Miami-based pilots killed by Cuban jets in 1996 in waters off the island.

The five admitted to being agents but denied involvement in spying on the United States.

During a trip to Brazil in December, Raúl Castro proposed the exchange.

"Those prisoners [imprisoned dissidents], they want to release them? Let them tell us. We will send them over there with families and everything. Let them return our Five Heroes. It is a gesture on both parts.''

The State Department's reaction at the time was firm: The matter of political prisoners detained against their will for simply having protested peacefully, it said, was independent from the case of five spies tried and convicted under U.S. law.

Yet the proposed exchange has been touted by the regime in Havana since early 2003, just five months after members of the so-called Wasp Net were sentenced in Miami.

`HIDDEN INTENTIONS'

''One of the hidden intentions of Fidel Castro was to launch a wave of repression in March of 2003 against the opposition movement to have a reserve of political prisoners for a possible exchange for the five spies,'' said dissident activist Elizardo Sanchez Satacruz, who heads the illegal Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Havana. ``It is no coincidence that the charges imposed alluded to a supposed collaboration with the foreign power.''

Following years of a campaign seeking the release of the five spies, presenting them as ''fighting against terrorism inside the United States,'' the Cuban government floated the exchange proposal during the visit of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to Havana in March 2008.

It has been suggested that as the Cuban government presses its exchange proposal, the focus may shift to Cuban prisoners of potentially greater interest to the United States. These include:

• Claro Alonso Hernández, an intelligence officer arrested in 1996 and sentenced to 30 years for revealing Cuban national security secrets.

• Adrián Alvarez Arencibia, arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 30 years for acts against the state.

• Julio César Alvarez López, an intelligence officer arrested in 1991 and sentenced to 19 years for revealing secrets and insubordination.

• Ernesto Borges Pérez, a counterintelligence captain and first officer of the Ministry of the Interior, sentenced to 30 years in 1998.

• Armando Medel Martín, an intelligence captain sentenced to 20 years in 1993.

• Rolando Sarraf Trujillo, an intelligence officer sentenced to 25 years in 1995.

• Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses, lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior, sentenced to 20 years in 1990 for espionage, dishonorable conduct, desertion and attempting to flee the country.

Other candidates are the two former employees of the Cuban Telecommunications Co., known as ETECSA, who were tried in mid-2007 behind closed doors after an investigation by the Logistics Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior.

RETURN OF FUGITIVES

Some analysts say the United States might be more interested in obtaining the return of some of the 70 fugitives from U.S. justice who live in Cuba under government protection.

In 2006, the Cuban government promised to stop offering refuge to U.S. fugitives. Since then, Cuban authorities have returned four such fugitives to the United States.

''During the outgoing administration [of President Bush], there were some levels of contact between both sides to air out these matters,'' said a U.S. official in Washington who asked to remain anonymous. ''That doesn't mean that there was talk of a prisoner exchange, but there may be a door open to consider it under more favorable circumstances,'' the official said.

The Supreme Court could take until the middle of the year to decide whether to hear the appeal requested by the attorneys of the five spies. If it does decide to take the case, a final ruling could come at the end of 2009.

The appeal argues that all of the sentences must be reviewed because the Miami federal court denied a motion seeking a change of venue and due to lapses in the jury-selection process.

Attorney Thomas Goldstein, a specialist in presenting matters before the Supreme Court, has joined the defense.