Cuban hijacker gets minimum 20 years for air piracy

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2003

Cuban hijacker gets minimum 20 years for air piracy
CATHERINE WILSON
Associated Press

MIAMI - An architect called Cuban President Fidel Castro a tyrant as he was sentenced to the minimum 20 years in federal prison Friday for hijacking a Cuban passenger plane to Key West using hand-painted ceramic to look like two grenades.

Adermis Wilson Gonzalez denounced the Castro government, invoked the memory of Elian Gonzalez's drowned mother and praised U.S. liberties in his first public words since his arrest April 1. An appeal is planned.

"I am very happy to be here in the United States far away from the clutches of the tyrant Castro," Wilson told the judge. "I know that God is on my side today, that God is looking at the freedom my wife and child are enjoying."

Wilson, 34, brought his 19-year-old wife Lehidy and 3-year-old son Andy with him when he forced the Cuban Airlines AN-24 to fly to Florida from his home island of Isle of Youth off the south coast of Cuba, with a long stop in Havana for food and fuel.

"I discovered there is no justice here," Wilson's wife, who is living with an uncle in Naples, said through tears after the hearing. "I can imagine that Fidel is happy today, but my life is a disgrace now." (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6811754.htm

[Mika]

1. He gets to stay in the US even after his felony sentence is served

From the Miami Herald article,

In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge Shelby Highsmith recommended Wilson be allowed to stay in the United States when his sentence is done. A standard provision in sentencing non-citizens is to order their deportation after prison.

Except ex Cubans.

Another example of how expat Cubans are treated better (and have more rights instantly granted to them via the "wet foot/ dry foot" policy for Cubans only) than any other immigrant to arrive in the US. Partly because of the US's Cuban Adjustment Act, but also because the US and Cuba have no formal diplomatic relations. Hence, Cuban immigrants who have committed felony offenses are not deported to their country of origin (Cuba) like every other immigrant group in the US is deported - post felony. So, after their sentence is served, instead of being deported they are released into the general population (usually in Miami). They can never be deported as long as the US/ Cuba diplomatic standoff continues.


It is far past due time to normalize relations with Cuba, and end the Cuban Adjustment Act.