The Belgian Senate has called for the intervention of the U.S. government to end the injustice against the Five, through a resolution adopted after several years of persistent work of the Belgian Committee for the Release of the Cuban Five.
The resolution, drafted by Socialist Party Senator Fatiha Saidi, was approved in early July and released recently.

Saïdi took the initiative after the second meeting in October 2010 of Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, in the Belgian federal parliament. The meeting was attended by representatives and senators of seven political parties: Social Democrat parties PSC and CVP, the Christian-Democratic CDH and CD & V, the Flemish nationalist party N-VA and ecologists parties, Groen! and Ecolo.

The resolution was presented to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate by Senator Fatiha Saidi and Senator and former minister Marie Arena and had the support of 48 senators from nine political parties. There were only three votes against and two abstentions.

In the resolution the senators note that the Five are suffering severe penalties, following a process that was questioned by Amnesty International, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the UN and numerous NGOs. They also found that the visitation rights of the relatives are being violated.

Now that the judicial path is ending, the Belgian Senate considers that the power the U.S. President has for a pardon, to change the sentences or to announce an amnesty are the last resort for the freedom of the Five.

The Belgian Senators are asking their government to use all the diplomatic leverage at its disposal to secure the release of the Five and to introduce the item onto the agenda of bilateral meetings with the United States.

They also request the government to convey to the United States ambassador in Belgium that the Belgians are worried about the situation of these men, their detention and their conditions of detention. They also request transmitting the request of the Belgian Parliament to the President of the United States to pardon the "The Miami Five,” commute the sentence to a lesser sentence, or subject them to a fair trial in another district.

Senators end up by inviting the Belgian government to submit this resolution to the U.S. authorities (Congress and Senate of the United States and the President of the United States) to inform them about the concern of the Belgian people for the "Miami Five".

A similar resolution was submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian Parliament, pending discussion.

Translated by: Daysi Olano

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