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March 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A US judge has given permission for a Cuban man convicted in the United States of espionage to return to Cuba to visit a sick relative, his attorney told AFP on Tuesday.
Rene Gonzalez, one of the so-called “Cuba Five” group convicted of spying in the United States, will be permitted to visit his brother who is suffering from cancer, said his attorney Philip Horowitz, who said the order was issued late Monday.
“I can confirm that last night the court granted Rene permission to travel as requested,” Horowitz said.
“I cannot advise when the travel will occur. According to Monday’s order by Judge Joan Lenard, Rene Gonzalez must return from Cuba within two weeks of his departure,” Horowitz added.
The US Justice Department had argued against allowing Gonzalez to visit Cuba, arguing that he could get new spying instructions if he met with intelligence officials there.
US officials have insisted that any travel to Cuba by Gonzalez — who is on supervised probation after his release last fall from federal prison — be contingent upon his providing US officials a detailed itinerary of his travel.
They have also asked that he provide contact information and insisted that he refrain from any contact with Cuba’s intelligence.
“He can travel at any time but the length of the trip cannot exceed two weeks. Gonzalez must comply first with some procedural requirements, including notifications for his parole officer, before he can leave the country,” Horowitz said.
Gonzalez was arrested in 1998 along with the other members of the Cuba Five: Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez.
The men were found guilty in 2001 of trying to infiltrate US military installations in South Florida and were given long prison terms, ranging from 15 years to life.
Cuba has acknowledged that the five were intelligence agents, but says the men simply aimed to gather information on “terrorist” plots by Cuban expatriates in Florida — not to spy on the US government.
There has been talk of a plan to negotiate the release of any of the agents in a swap with American contractor Alan Gross, currently held in Cuba, although the US State Department has denied that any such exchange is in the works.
Gross, 63, has made a request to the Cuban government to be allowed to make a two-week trip to the United States to visit his mother, who is suffering from cancer.
He was sentenced in Cuba one year ago this month to 15 years in prison on charges he violated Cuba’s “independence or territorial integrity” in a case that has further soured already tense US-Cuban relations.
Gross has been in prison there since his arrest in 2009 for distributing cellphones and laptops to members of the island’s Jewish community under a State Department contract.
The case of the Cuba Five, viewed by Havana as political prisoners in the United States, has dogged US-Cuban ties for more than a decade.
Havana over the years repeatedly has urged that Gonzalez and the rest of the group — all of whom are considered national heroes — be allowed to return to the island.
Under the terms of his probation, Gonzalez was required to remain on US soil for three years — a requirement that has infuriated the Cuban government.
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