Kintar joins demonstration for five jailed Cubans in US
Source: AFP, 12-9-2008
BEIRUT: About 100 Lebanese, including Samir Kintar, who was freed by "Israel" this summer in a prisoner swap with Hizbullah, marched on Friday near the United States Embassy outside Beirut to demand the release of five Cubans held prisoner in the United States.
"Free the five Cuban heroes," read placards brandished by the protesters who also waved Cuban flags as they demonstrated near barricades and barbed wire set up about a kilometer from the embassy.
Kintar, the longest-serving Arab prisoner in "Israel" until his release this summer in a swap, appeared briefly at the protest to show solidarity.
"We have Arab political prisoners in "Israel" and the Cubans are supporting the Palestinian cause so this is an act of solidarity with the five political prisoners in the US," said Kintar's brother Bassam, who organized the march.
The five Cubans have been held in US prisons for 10 years on charges of espionage.
"Samir Kintar insisted on participating in the sit-in as a message to the US Embassy because they promised to track him in Lebanon," Bassam said. "This is a message from Samir that we will also track you [the US] on human rights."
Kintar, 46, was just 17 when he was sentenced to five life terms after being convicted of the 1979 killing a police officer and another two "Israeli" settlers in a raid in the northern "Israeli" town of Nahariya. Kintar maintains his innocence.
September 12 marks the 10th anniversary of the imprisonment in US high security jails of the "Cuban Five": Gerardo Hernandez, Gerardo Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzales and Antonio Guerrero. The United States considers the five convicted spies who passed US military information to the government of communist Cuba.
Cuba maintains the five traveled to the United States in the early 1990s on a mission to gather information about Cuban-American terror attacks against Cuba.
BEIRUT: About 100 Lebanese, including Samir Kintar, who was freed by "Israel" this summer in a prisoner swap with Hizbullah, marched on Friday near the United States Embassy outside Beirut to demand the release of five Cubans held prisoner in the United States.
"Free the five Cuban heroes," read placards brandished by the protesters who also waved Cuban flags as they demonstrated near barricades and barbed wire set up about a kilometer from the embassy.
Kintar, the longest-serving Arab prisoner in "Israel" until his release this summer in a swap, appeared briefly at the protest to show solidarity.
"We have Arab political prisoners in "Israel" and the Cubans are supporting the Palestinian cause so this is an act of solidarity with the five political prisoners in the US," said Kintar's brother Bassam, who organized the march.
The five Cubans have been held in US prisons for 10 years on charges of espionage.
"Samir Kintar insisted on participating in the sit-in as a message to the US Embassy because they promised to track him in Lebanon," Bassam said. "This is a message from Samir that we will also track you [the US] on human rights."
Kintar, 46, was just 17 when he was sentenced to five life terms after being convicted of the 1979 killing a police officer and another two "Israeli" settlers in a raid in the northern "Israeli" town of Nahariya. Kintar maintains his innocence.
September 12 marks the 10th anniversary of the imprisonment in US high security jails of the "Cuban Five": Gerardo Hernandez, Gerardo Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzales and Antonio Guerrero. The United States considers the five convicted spies who passed US military information to the government of communist Cuba.
Cuba maintains the five traveled to the United States in the early 1990s on a mission to gather information about Cuban-American terror attacks against Cuba.
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