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US drops charges against airline bomber Luis Posada Carriles
A US judge has dropped immigration charges against a Cuban exile, Luis Posada Carriles, who has been accused of blowing up a Cuban airliner.
Mr Posada, 79, was detained in May 2005 after entering the US illegally, but was released on bail last month.
A former CIA employee, he is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba over the downing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 in which 73 people died. He denies involvement.
US authorities have ruled out returning him to Cuba or Venezuela.
Mr Posada was due to go on trial next Monday.
However, on Tuesday, US district judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed the immigration fraud indictment in a court in El Paso, Texas.
"I am free," Mr Posada exclaimed on a Miami-based radio station, according to the AFP news agency.
"Thank God, you, all of my brothers, the people in Cuba... for this victory," he said.
His lawyer, Felipe Millan, said the judge had ruled that statements by Mr Posada that were to be used against him had been obtained illegally.
"They tricked him," Mr Millan said.
US justice department spokesman Dean Boyd said: "We're reviewing the decision."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6637481.stm
A former CIA employee, he is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba over the downing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 in which 73 people died. He denies involvement.
US authorities have ruled out returning him to Cuba or Venezuela.
Mr Posada was due to go on trial next Monday.
However, on Tuesday, US district judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed the immigration fraud indictment in a court in El Paso, Texas.
"I am free," Mr Posada exclaimed on a Miami-based radio station, according to the AFP news agency.
"Thank God, you, all of my brothers, the people in Cuba... for this victory," he said.
His lawyer, Felipe Millan, said the judge had ruled that statements by Mr Posada that were to be used against him had been obtained illegally.
"They tricked him," Mr Millan said.
US justice department spokesman Dean Boyd said: "We're reviewing the decision."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6637481.stm
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Posada allegedly entered the US illegally in 2005, but charges were dismissed on Tuesday because of inaccurate translation at Posada's immigration interviews.
Posada is also wanted in Cuba and Venezuela over the bombing but the Bush administration has refused to hand him over, saying he would face certain torture if extradited.
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone also criticised the government's actions in the case.
"The evidence is overwhelming that the government improperly manipulated the administration of criminal justice in order to secure a criminal indictment[s] against defendant," Cardone wrote in her 38-page ruling.
Dismissed
Posada, a 79-year-old former CIA operative and fierce opponent of Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader, was scheduled to stand trial next week in Texas on immigration fraud charges.
He was imprisoned in Venezuela but escaped and later became involved with CIA operations in Central America.
Posada has denied involvement in the bombing that killed 73 people.
He has also been accused of being involved in a series of bombings inside Cuba in 1997, and of plotting to assassinate Castro in 2000 when he was arrested with a large cache of explosives in Panama.
Arturo Hernandez, Posada's lawyer, said it was "a victory for all freedom-loving Cubans in the world and a validation of the American legal system".
Case lost in translation
Posada was caught in Miami and sent to El Paso to face immigration charges in March 2005.
Federal prosecutors have accused him of lying about how he entered the US and other details.
Posada was released on bond pending trial last month and returned to Miami to be with his family - a move condemned by Cuba.
Cardone said the interpretation of the interview "is so inaccurate as to render it unreliable as evidence of defendant's actual statement".
She said Posada was entitled to certain rights under the US constitution and the court would "not set aside such rights nor overlook government misconduct because defendant is a political hot potato".
"This court's concern is not politics; it is the preservation of criminal justice."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5866D913-EE74-4762-B08C-1798C86F79AD.htm