Carlos Pupo and Lazaro Seara view the headlines about their release.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
TWO Cubans released from prison after they were unlawfully detained for nearly three years expressed relief on Friday as Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell announced that an investigation has been launched into why the Supreme Court was persuaded to free them.
Mr Mitchell said that the men pose a risk to the country's national security, adding that he has alerted authorities to their possible threat.
However, in court on Thursday, the Attorney General's office did not contest an application seeking to have the men released from prison, prompting Supreme Court Justice Stephen Isaacs to rule that the men, Carlos Pupo and Lazaro Seara, were unlawfully detained in prison for nearly three years.
Both men told The Tribune yesterday that they were happy to be released, with Mr Seara saying he felt like a "little bird released from a cage he had been in for no reason".
Mr Pupo said their experience in prison inside had been terrible. "Lot of problems everyday," he said. "We receive problem with officers and everybody; beating us in the bathroom; having problem with a gang inside."
The incident marks another example of attorney and human rights activist Fred Smith taking on the government for what he sees as a tendency to "run roughshod" over some laws.
In another high profile case involving a suspect accused of sexual assault - one involving Matthew Sewell - Mr Smith won a bail hearing on Thursday in connection with an allegation, the latest in a long running episode involving the Jamaican.
However, the Office of the Attorney General gained a stay on Thursday evening and their appeal will be heard in Supreme Court on Monday.
Regarding the release of the Cubans, Mr Mitchell said in a statement yesterday: "The Department of Immigration takes the position that these individuals are a national security risk. We continue to support that position. Those were the clear instructions from our principals at the highest levels to pursue that position.
"Those instructions did not change and were not changed. I have asked for an investigation then into how a court was persuaded that two people that the government believes with cogent evidence are a security risk, were released into the general population of The Bahamas.
"All of our border forces have been notified to the potential risk of these individuals being out in the general community and should be so warned. I expect to present a full report to the House on Wednesday 24 February."
Adrian Gibson, of Callenders & Co, one of the lawyers for the Cubans, said Mr Mitchell's statement was "totally objectionable".
"Not even the Attorney General disputed the application and she represents the government," he said. "Mr Mitchell is off his rocker and his statement is totally uncalled for and it flies in the face of what the AG is doing as well."
Comments
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 10 months ago
Mitchell should be jailed for this or better yet haul his crooked ass before the International Court of Justice and charge him with the crimes that he has committed.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 10 months ago
............ were they terrorists???????? Fweddy said they were on the "national watch list" .................. should have sent them to Guatanamo
Publius 8 years, 10 months ago
Is this man $#@%$ insane??
Economist 8 years, 10 months ago
How do they pose a threat?
Maybe because their detention exposes the "Papa Doc" mentality of this government?
Tarzan 8 years, 10 months ago
Comrade Mitchell cannot understand that he is not operating in his beloved Cuban paradise where his pals the Castro Brothers can toss anyone they wish into jail and simply throw away the key. He never produces evidence. He always makes sweeping accusations that these victims of serial injustice, pose a danger to the peace and security of the state. The same vague accusations that were hallmarks of Comrade Stalin's show trials in the 1930's. How can government continue to defend his totalitarian, xenophobic, hysteria. It is an international embarrassment.
thephoenix562 8 years, 10 months ago
*Mr Mitchell get over it.Follow the law or step aside.This is the Bahamas not your own personal empire.*
DonAnthony 8 years, 10 months ago
Fred Mitchell is an embarrassment and should resign. When will the attorney general bring human rights abuse charges against him? It seems he is the criminal in this sad affair! As we like to say he should shut up and sit small.
banker 8 years, 10 months ago
Poor Fred Mitchell is getting delusions of grandeur. He should be put in Fox Hill prison like his brother was. On the other hand, given his predilection for "incarceration attention" from more alpha prisoners, he just might like it and find a home there.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 10 months ago
............ if he courts have freed these men, why doesn't Fred Smith buy them two airline tickets and send them back home to Cuba (or Florida)??????? ............ am tired of this crap
Space 8 years, 10 months ago
Is anyone going to specify why they are a "national security risk"? Or is that just code for ""national embarrassment risk" - someone needs to look further in to why Freddy is so scared of these guys specifically. This story has to run deeper...
sheeprunner12 8 years, 10 months ago
See my first comment ........ are they international terrorists?????? Did they plan a coup against Perry???? Were they about to attack Uncle Sam??????? Were they planning to assassinate the Castros???? Were they planning to take over one of our islands for Cuban refugees??????
birdiestrachan 8 years, 10 months ago
These men have committed crimes in the USA. and they can not go back there. Their own Country does not want them. This is a difficult situation for the Bahamas. There are no Countries that will have them. so the Bahamas has to add more criminals to the already high number of criminals that are already here. and Fred Smiths wants to sue The people of the Bahamas for them and the other Jamacian who has been accused of some form of rape three times something is very wrong with all of this.
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