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US nabs Cuban 'spies'
09/01/2006 22:18 - (SA)
Miami - A college professor and his wife have been charged with acting as longtime illegal agents of Cuban President Fidel Castro, documents filed on Monday said.
Carlos Alvarez, a psychology professor at Florida International University in Miami, and his wife, Elsa Alvarez, are believed to have acted as agents of Cuba without registering with the US government as required.
The two were scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Monday. An indictment further describing the charges was expected to be unsealed after that court appearance, court officials said.
Alvarez is identified on the university website as an associate professor in the educational leadership and policy studies department. Elsa Alvarez is described as a co-ordinator in the social work training programme, specialising in psychological treatment, crisis intervention and group psychotherapy.
In August, the convictions and sentences of five alleged Cuban spies were thrown out by a three-judge panel of the 11th US circuit court of appeals, which ruled that the five were unfairly tried because of intense publicity, community prejudice and inflammatory remarks by prosecutors.
The defendants acknowledged being Cuban agents, but said they were spying on Cuban exiles in Florida opposed to Castro, not on the United States itself.
The full 11th circuit has agreed to rehear the arguments on whether the five received a fair trial.
- AP
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