mdubuque

EDITOR'S WINDOW
Businessman James Sabzali still subject to stiff sentence for trading
with Cuba
• U.S. government officials recently decided that the extremely grave
crime of selling chemicals to purify water in Cuban hospitals is a
"matter of national security"• Thus, this Canadian citizen faces a
increased sentence of up to 62 months and a fine that could rise to $5
million USD • An anthem to respect for human rights.

BY GABRIEL MOLINA

ALMOST three years after being accused of trading with the enemy,
Canadian James Sabzali still cannot understand why selling chemicals
to purify drinking water in Cuban hospitals warrants him being kept
under house arrest in Philadelphia for more than 12 months.

He is currently awaiting a new trial to know the magnitude of his
sentence or if he will be exonerated of the charges for which he is
accused.

Despite being a Canadian citizen, 44-year old Sabzali could be
sentenced to from four to 200 years' imprisonment and fined up to
$250,000 USD on each charge. Federal prosecutor Joseph Poluka has
asked for a sentence of 41-51 months as a minimum and conservative
calculation. But government officials recently determined that water
purification is a matter of national security and therefore the prison
term could rise to 62 months and the fine up to $5 million USD.

Also found guilty with Sabzali were brothers Stefan and Donald Brodie
(54 and 58 years old respectively), both U.S citizens and president
and vice president of the firm. The case received little coverage in
the mainstream U.S. media despite the fact that Sabzali, as a Canadian
citizen, is obliged to ignore the embargo as part of his country's
legislation against extraterritorial measures (Canadian
Extraterritorial Act), as trading with Cuba is legal in Canada. In
fact, Canadian companies are obliged to inform Ottawa if they receive
orders from the United States not to export to the island for
political or legal reasons.

James Sabzali, born in Trinidad and formerly resident in Hamilton,
worked in this city from 1991-1996 as a sales representative and
marketing director for Purolite International Inc., an Ottawa-based
firm and a branch of the U.S. Bro-Tech Corporation company. He
traveled to Havana in this capacity on more than 20 occasions up until
1996. He was then transferred to Philadelphia as head of the firm in
1996 and moved to the city with his wife and two children. There he
was indicted for alleged crimes committed in Canada and during the
three-week trial was found guilty on eight out of 20 charges. These
included sales of resins based on ion interaction effected between
1992 and 2000 to a value of approximately $2 million USD, reported
Joseph A. Slobodzian, a journalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The 12 remaining charges relate to shipments from Bro Tech's offices
in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Britain. These countries do not
recognize the anti-Cuban legislation promulgated by the United States
over the last 40 years and that Washington has been trying to impose
on third nations. The products that Sabzali sold never once came from
the United States but from Britain and Canada.

According to the BBC, Sabzali has become the first Canadian to be
tried and sentenced to house arrest for violating the U.S. law of
trading with the enemy, that dates back to 1917, and which has been
updated, increased and discredited by Washington in order to utilize
it against the island. The harsh sentence came as a surprise, given
that in the past the courts had preferred to impose fines of several
thousand dollars, except in the case of one Spaniard, who was given a
prison term at the end of his Miami trial, of which he only served a
few months.

Sabzali's new trial was ordered by a federal judge in Philadelphia on
June 16, after she had expressed concern over the strong language used
by the prosecution in its closing arguments, according to a report by
Steve Eckardt.

"It is never proper to throw around such inflammatory language in a
criminal trial," stated McLaughlin, adding that the prosecution's
repeated charges that the defense was lying served to "stir up the
jury". Defense lawyer Gregory Craig – widely known as President
Clinton's legal representative during the Lewinski case – said that
the prosecutors' outburst was inadmissible practice that completely
undermined the trial.

Sabzali's lawyers also put forward the argument that when the embargo
was initiated in 1962, President Kennedy had not declared any state of
emergency for that country. The prosecution contested that the 1996
Helms-Burton Act in effect negated this obligation.

But no one has questioned the laws that apply to "trading with the
enemy," with respect to the absence of a declaration of war against
this "enemy"; a condition that, according to law, must be approved by
Congress.

The incorrect conduct of the DA's office would require dropping the
conspiracy charge as well as the other 20. But the judge rejected a
motion for acquittal and maintained the 76 charges against Sabzali for
violating the embargo and conspiracy that emerged from the five-year
investigation prior to the trial, which concluded in October 2000,
reported Eckardt.

"Good news, but not great news," said Sabzali, in an interview. "It's
a break in the case. When you have to start fabricating evidence and
lying to secure a conviction, it shows something is wrong."

Sabzali is very upset that the judge has decided not to acquit him. In
an e-mail to his supporters, he stated that the judicial dictates show
there is a shady deal in the making.

In an interview, federal prosecutor Joseph Poluka stated that his
office was reviewing the ruling and referred to it as "appealable".

"We're considering every option," he declared. "The two key
possibilities are an appeal or a retrial."

Last year, the Canadian government's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and
International Trade objected to Sabzali's trial, terming it
unacceptable that should be charged with something that is not a crime
in his country. But to date, it has waited for the outcome without
taking any action.

The trial generated protests in Canada, as many deem it to be a case
of the United States attempting to impose its laws on its northern
neighbor. From the first day of the three-week trial, the Canadian
daily The Toronto Star urged the government to protest against this
extraterritorial application of the law. In an editorial entitled "Its
not our embargo", the paper stated that the ruling was nothing more
than a Cold War relic and an inexplicable violation of Canadian
sovereignty, with the ironic reality that the very same day, a U.S.
firm would announce sales to Cuba in the region of $100 million USD.

And then there was the unmistakable voice of Congressman Lincoln Díaz
Balart, alleging that Sabzali's business transactions took place
before the law was passed — despite his objections and with serious
limitations — that currently allows sales of medicines and food
products from the United States to Cuba.

action in relation to the Sabzali case. In reply, minister Bill Graham
explained that the Canadian position was to consider the law as an
extraterritorial application and informed the group that he was in
contact with the defense lawyers in order to ensure Sabzali would
receive an adequate defense.

However, Reynald Doiron, the Foreign Office spokesperson then stated
that Mr. Sabzali knew the risks he was taking when he moved to the
United States. He added that what the government rejected was the fact
that Sabzali could be charged in the United States for activities in
which he took part when he lived in Canada, as that represented an
attack on Canadian sovereignty.

The sentence should have been announced on June 28, 2002 but one year
was to go by before a decision was made, and one that was not what
Poluka was hoping for. The revocation of the verdicts against Sabzali
and the two U.S. citizens would appear to end their house arrest for
the time being.

Hearing of the new trial, Sabzali's wife, Sharon Moss, said, "I have
no idea what's next. I hate to think about going through this another
time. We can only pray."

Whatever the result, if one compares Washington's threats against
France and other European Union countries with the Draconian measures
that have been applied against Cuba for the last 40 years – of which
Sabzali's case is a vivid example – the European position to a large
extent recalls the Munich Pact agreed in September 1938 that was so
much lamented by certain powers.

The Sabzali case clearly illustrates the maliciousness, ferocity and
cruelty of the war against Cuba – euphemistically termed an "embargo"
by the U.S. government – which would now seem to be forgotten by
certain European Union leaders. The latest fashion from Washington is
to pose the idea that the "embargo" is a pretext to conceal economic
failures. All right then! Lift the pretext!!

Matthew

rabidac

another camajan.

pedro martori

Brasil se compromete a liquidar la deuda cubana de 40 millones de dólares


por Mar Marín
EFE
La Habana
Diario de Sevilla
España


La voluntad de cooperación entre Cuba y Brasil se ha traducido en una docena
de acuerdos que no comprometen sumas significativas, aunque la numerosa
delegación empresarial que acompañó al presidente brasileño en su visita a
la isla caribeña augura perspectivas de negocio.

El presidente de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, concluyó ayer su primera
visita oficial a Cuba, de poco más de 24 horas, que ha supuesto un
espaldarazo para el líder cubano, Fidel Castro, enfrentado directamente a
Estados Unidos y a la Unión Europea.

La presencia de Lula, el primer mandatario latinoamericano que llega al país
desde el pasado noviembre, con excepción del principal aliado de Castro en
la región, el venezolano Hugo Chávez, despertó una enorme expectación por
sus connotaciones políticas y la posibilidad de ayudas económicas para Cuba,
que aún se resiente de la crisis por la caída del bloque comunista europeo
en 1989.

Castro y Lula tuvieron oportunidad el viernes de hablar en privado durante
varias horas sobre temas genéricos en el marco de la "disposición a la
cooperación", según fuentes brasileñas.

El mandatario cubano recibió a su invitado vestido con un uniforme de color
verde olivo y disfrutó de la ceremonia oficial de bienvenida, en el Palacio
de la Revolución de la capital cubana. "Es una foto feliz", dijo el líder
cubano, según la televisión oficial, mientras posaba con su viejo amigo
Lula, a quien conoció como sindicalista en la década de 1980 en Nicaragua.

En materia económica, la voluntad de cooperación expresada por los gobiernos
de ambos países se tradujo en la noche del viernes en la firma de una docena
de acuerdos, entre los que se incluye una fórmula para paliar la deuda
cubana con Brasil.

Entre ellos no figura ninguna línea de crédito especial para Cuba del Banco
Nacional de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Brasil (BNDES), en contra de lo
que se había rumoreado.

El acuerdo marco referido a la deuda expresa la voluntad de ambos gobiernos
de "ampliar el mecanismo para la liquidación de la deuda cubana, basado en
destinar a ese fin un porcentaje de los ingresos por exportaciones a
Brasil".

Fuentes del Gobierno brasileño evitaron concretar qué porcentaje de esos
ingresos se destinará a paliar la deuda de Cuba con Brasil.

Las mismas fuentes admitieron que, aunque la deuda cubana apenas asciende a
40 millones de dólares, Brasil aspira a que la cifra no crezca y a adoptar
una fórmula adecuada a la capacidad de pago de Cuba.


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joebusiness

Really? Shows some stupidity and moronity. We in NC got Helms out only to
have Elizabeth Dole step in, the former presidential canidate's wife. I
think people in our state are directly responsible for the national outrage
that is our policy towards Cuba.

Picking on minorities seems to be playinga role here also. Now I say we
outta outsource medical/home health care jobs from Cuba and Mexico. We need
millions to take care of the millions of elderly our country is direly
approaching over the next 30 years. So the sooner this new conspiracy is out
the sooner we can deal with it.

The sooner I can get some more sleep the more coherent I'll be.
anyway...
lata
joe quasar