(31 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Havana, Cuba – 11 March 1999
++4:3++
1. Accused Raúl Ernesto Cruz León
2. Close up Cruz León
3. Various of guns and other weapons
4. Zoom out of Cruz León
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Rafael Pino, prosecutor:
++SOUNDBITE PARTLY OVER IMAGE OF CRUZ LEON++
"And request the death penalty for the defendant Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon."
7. Wide of court
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raúl Ernesto Cruz León , accused:
"I have met, especially with the state security officers, they have always stressed something, and they have told me, have faith, hope for the Cuban benevolence is great. And it is to this that I now appeal. The only thing I have left is my life, and it is the only thing I appeal to is for the the Cuban benevolence, that is all, Mr. President."
9. Panel of judges and Raúl Ernesto Cruz León standing before them
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Havana, Cuba – 15 September 1997
++4:3++
10. Pan of identification cards taken from Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon
11. Leon’s address book with addresses of targeted hotels
12. Leon showing television used to import explosives
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, convicted of terrorism:
"On the 9th day when I came, I think it was on the 12th, I placed two explosive devices, in two different hotels. On this occasion, I placed three explosives in three different hotels that were close by, and in a restaurant."
Person asking (off camera): "Were you instructed to contact any nationals to participate in these terrorist actions?"
Leon: "No. Absolutely not. They sent me with enough modern methods to guarantee my safety and that nothing was going to happen to me. And so, I didn’t contact anybody here in Cuba and nobody contacted me. I came alone and I left alone."
14. Pan of clothing worn by Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon
15. Investigators examining alarm clock used to conceal explosives
16. Fragment of bombing in which Italian tourist died
17. Calculator detonation device
STORYLINE:
Cuba has released Raul Ernesto, a Salvadoran citizen charged with carrying out bomb attacks in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist, local news reported on Monday.
The official Cubadebate website indicated that Leon, who was initially sentenced to death for the attacks, later had his sentence commuted to 30 years in prison.
He was released, but no further details were provided regarding his situation.
"The release of Ernesto Cruz Leon today, after completing his sentence, illustrates the consistency of the Cuban legal system. However, we must remember that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts, who planned and financed the attacks, have lived and died in the United States without facing justice,” said the website.
Cuba experienced a series of bomb attacks on its tourist centers in 1997, one of which resulted in the death of young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo.
Cruz Leon – now 53 years old – and another compatriot named Otto René Rodríguez Llerena – who planted another explosive device – were sentenced to death in 1999, but in December 2010, their sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison.
Rodríguez Llerena was released in 2016 on the grounds that his attack did not claim any lives.
In an exclusive interview in September 2011 to The Associated Press, Cruz Leon admitted his responsibility for the bomb that killed Di Celmo.
Chávez Abarca was sentenced by the island’s courts to 30 years in 2010.
Cruz León’s sentence is deemed complete in Cuba, as the penitentiary system considers 10 months equivalent to one year in prison.
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