Judge drops charges against anti-Castro militant

HOUSTON, May 8

A U.S. judge has thrown out all charges against anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, less than a week before he was supposed to go to trial. Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas dismissed on Tuesday the seven-count indictment accusing Posada Carriles, 79, of immigration fraud. "We're reviewing the decision," Boyd said. Posada Carriles attorney Felipe Millan said Cardone ruled that statements by Posada Carriles that were to be used against him in the trial starting on Monday had been obtained unconstitutionally. "They tricked him," Millan said. Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba for trial on charges he masterminded the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, had been out on bail in Miami awaiting trial and left the El Paso courthouse a free man, Millan said.