• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 12 / 07 / 2010

---

AP. HAVANA – The Cuban Supreme Court on Monday began reviewing the death sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of terrorism for a string of Havana hotel bombings in 1997.

State-run website Cubadebate announced the review of Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena's case, but did not provide details.

Last week, the court commuted the death sentence of a second Salvadoran man convicted in the case, Ernesto Cruz Leon, giving him 30 years in prison instead.

Rodriguez and Cruz Leon both confessed to the bombings, which killed an Italian tourist and wounded 11 other people including seven foreigners. They were found guilty in 1999.

The plot was allegedly organized and financed by Cuban-Venezuelan Luis Posada Carriles — a former CIA operative and one of Cuba's most-wanted men, who is also accused in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner and in a series of attempts to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Posada Carriles acknowledged involvement in the hotel bombings — but later retracted it and denied playing any role. He was convicted in Venezuela of the attack on the airliner but escaped jail and fled the country. Today he lives in the United States, where he faces charges of lying to federal authorities in his 2005 bid to become a U.S. citizen.

While capital punishment is allowed under Cuba's constitution, President Raul Castro announced in 2008 that nearly all death sentences would be commuted and the rest — a handful of capital cases involving terrorism — would be reviewed.

Besides Rodriguez, the only prisoner remaining on death row in Cuba today is Cuban-American Humberto Eladio Real, a member of an anti-Fidel Castro group who was convicted of killing a policeman in 1994 when he stormed ashore in Villa Clara armed with assault rifles and other weapons.There has been no word on whether a review is planned for his case.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101206/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_terrorism_2