Cuban ex-CIA agent acquitted

EL PASO, Texas — An elderly Cuban former CIA operative accused of lying during a U.S. immigration hearing was acquitted on all charges Friday, with jurors taking just three hours to reach a verdict after enduring 13 weeks of often-delayed testimony.
Luis Posada Carriles, 83, broke out in a huge grin when the verdict was read and hugged all three of his attorneys simultaneously. One of the attorneys broke down in tears.
Across the aisle, the federal prosecutors who painstakingly built their case during the first 11 weeks by calling 23 witnesses, sat still.
“Anytime a jury has a case, there’s no telling what they might do. But we respect the jury’s decision,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Reardon said after the hearing.
Posada, who spent decades working to destabilize communist Latin American governments, often with Washington’s backing, is Public Enemy No. 1 in his homeland and is considered ex-President Fidel Castro’s nemesis.
Prosecutors said Posada lied to immigration officials about how he sneaked into the U.S. in 2005 and by denying he masterminded a series of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and wounded 12 other people.
Posada said in a 1998 interview with The New York Times that he planned the attacks, but later recanted that. (AP)