Thursday, June 22, 2006

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Cuba has sentenced a leading member of the Communist Party to 12 years in prison for corruption in what the country's only legal political organization said was proof no one stands above the law.

The conviction of the highest-ranking party member in over a decade came amid a nationwide anti-corruption drive that has used young people, retired party members and others to fight rampant theft that has hobbled Cuba's state-run economy.

A Political Bureau communique said party leader Juan Carlos Robinson was tried last week and found guilty of "continuous influence peddling".

Robinson was expelled from the Political Bureau, the party's highest body, in April. His trial was not publicized.

"No one, no matter their responsibilities and merits, can violate the law," the communique said, adding witnesses and documents had proved Robinson's "ideological deterioration, abuse of his position ... and use of his influence for personal gain."

Robinson, 49 and one of the few afro-Cuban members of the Political Bureau, served as head of the party in easternmost Guantanamo province and then neighboring Santiago province before being transferred to Havana five years ago.

The party is the only one allowed on the Caribbean island, and it has been led by President Fidel Castro, 79, as first secretary and his brother and defense minister, Raul Castro, 75, as second secretary, since its founding in 1965.

Late last year Castro announced he would mobilize the country to stamp out corruption that threatened his socialist system's survival.

The drive against corruption already has resulted in hundreds of employees being fired from the state bureaucracy and often expelled from the party, according to government sources.

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