Six Cubans Get 20-24 Years for Hijacking

MIAMI(Yahoo News) - Six Cubans were sentenced Wednesday to at least 20 years in prison for hijacking an airliner from Cuba to Florida. The hijacking in March 2003 was the first in a series of air and sea hijackings that raised tensions between the United States and Cuba.

The six men were accused of using five knives and a cockpit ax to commandeer the Cuban airliner during a domestic flight. The DC-3 with 37 people aboard landed in Key West with a U.S. fighter escort. The men insisted it was a flight to freedom, with secret inside help from the co-pilot. But the jury rejected the claim in December.

The plot's leader and his brother were sentenced to 24 years in prison by a judge who accused them of blatant perjury at their trial. The four other hijackers received 20-year terms.
Prosecutors had asked for life sentences because the hijacking endangered the others aboard.
Fifteen people besides the hijackers chose to stay in the United States, including one crew member, a flight attendant.

In another hijacking attempt last spring, three men took control of a Cuban ferry, but they failed to reach the United States and were executed by a Cuban firing squad.

Kubanische Luftpiraten in USA zu hohen Haftstrafen verurteilt

Miami (AFP) - Ein Gericht in Miami im US-Bundesstaat Florida hat am Mittwoch sechs kubanische Flugzeugentführer zu Haftstrafen zwischen 20 und 24 Jahren verurteilt. Die Männer im Alter zwischen 21 und 31 Jahren hatten im März vergangenen Jahres mit vorgehaltenen Messern eine Passagiermaschine auf einem innerkubanischen Flug zwischen der Insel der Jugend und der Hauptstadt Havanna nach Cayo Hueso in Florida umdirigiert. Die Jury des Bundesgerichts hatte sie im vergangenen Dezember der Flugzeugentführung für schuldig befunden, das Strafmaß wurde jetzt verkündet.

Cuba-Reiseinfos
avenTOURa