Supreme Court rejects final appeal in 'Cuban Five' spy case

A Cuban spy case that embodied lingering Cold War tensions between the United States and the island nation died in the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

The justices, without elaboration, chose not to hear the final appeal of the so-called Cuban Five. The Cuban men, whose appeal won support from 10 Nobel laureates, claimed they did not receive a fair trial because of the anti-Castro climate enveloping their 2001 proceeding in Miami.

The high court's decision means the five will not get a shot at a new trial and will continue to serve lengthy prison terms ranging from 15 years to life.

The five, arrested in 1998 as members of La Red Avispa (the Wasp Network), were convicted of acting as illegal agents for Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government. Three were also found guilty of espionage conspiracy.

The group's ringleader, Gerardo Hernández, also was convicted of conspiring to commit murder for his supporting role in the Cuban government's highly controversial shoot-down in 1996 of two Miami-based planes over international waters -- killing four members of the Brothers to the Rescue exile group.

REACTION

The high court's decision not to review the Cuban Five's case drew praise from victims' relatives and Miami politicians. But it also brought condemnation from the Cuban government and an advocacy group, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.

''This is the best news in a long time,'' said Maggie Khuly, a Miami architect whose brother, Armando Alejandre Jr., was killed in the shoot-down. ''It's not everything that we might have wanted, but this measure of justice is what we have right now.

''It's not only for us, the families, but for the whole community in Miami,'' she said. ''Our whole community has been vindicated.''

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, welcomed the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case during a news conference, where she pointed to the recent arrests of two accused Cuban spies in the Washington area as proof that Cuba remains a national security threat to the U.S.

Ros-Lehtinen said the arrests of retired State Department intelligence and research division employee Walter Kendall Myers and his wife Gwendolyn shatters the ''myth'' that Cuba sends spies -- like the Cuban Five -- to the United States to defend itself from Cuban exile militants bent on attacking the island. Ros-Lehtinen said the men rightfully ''will remain in this great country that respects the rule of law -- convicted -- and they will remain in jail.''

SUPPORTERS CRITICAL

But the Cuban government and Cuban Five supporters condemned the court's decision, blaming the Obama administration.

''The judges did what the Obama administration asked them to do,'' said a statement issued by the Cuban National Assembly, presided over by Ricardo Alarcón. ''Once again, the arbitrariness of a corrupt and hypocritical system and its cruel malice toward our five brothers becomes manifest.''

''It's a disgrace,'' said Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the San Francisco-based advocacy group National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, arguing that the men were trying to protect their homeland from a ''terrorist nest'' of exile militants in Miami.

''The whole world knows about this,'' she said. ''It's a shame on the U.S. justice system. This fight is not over.''

Miami Herald translator Renato Pérez contributed to this report.