A Cuban militant accused of plotting a 1976 jetliner bombing that killed 73 people cannot be deported to Venezuela, an immigration judge has ruled. Luis Posada Carriles, who has denied that he planned the bombing, It was an accident? claims he would be tortured if sent to Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen and once served as a CIA operative.
In a written ruling Monday, Judge William L. Abbott cited conventions against extradition to a country if a person were likely to face torture there.
Venezuelan officials have said Posada was in Caracas when he planned the bombing and have asked the State Department for his extradition. They say there is no evidence their government would torture him. "Rather than proceeding with the extradition of this self-confessed terrorist to stand trial for murder in Caracas, the U.S. government has instead turned the case into a minor immigration matter," the Venezuelan embassy said in a statement Monday before the judge's ruling was announced.
Posada is accused of illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico in March. He was arrested in Miami in May and is being held in a federal detention center in El Paso. |