Friday, February 2, 2007

HOUSTON, USA (Reuters): The US government took another step on Wednesday to keep holding an anti-Fidel Castro militant, who is accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, without declaring him a terrorist.

In a court filing in El Paso, Texas, Justice Department lawyers asked a judge to dismiss Luis Posada Carriles' claim he was being detained illegally and must be released.

The lawyers said Posada, 78, was charged on Jan. 11 with a specific crime - lying to immigration authorities - so he was no longer being detained awaiting deportation but was jailed awaiting trial.

Cuba and Venezuela have demanded Posada's extradition to face charges in the airliner bombing, in which 73 people died, but US officials have refused, arguing he might be tortured.

The United States has not been able to find another country willing to accept Posada's deportation, and a judge said in November he either had to be charged with something by Thursday or released.

US officials had resisted either course until recently.

The case is embarrassing to the US government, which is engaged in a war on terror, because Cuba and Venezuela consider Posada, once in the pay of the CIA, a terrorist.

Politically powerful Cuban-Americans see him as a hero.

Posada has been transferred from an immigration detention center to a New Mexico jail, where he is in the custody of US marshals.

He had been in the custody of immigration officials in El Paso since sneaking into the United States to join his family in Miami in 2005.

Posada has said he is old, has renounced violence and only wants to be with his family.

A Jan. 11 indictment returned by a grand jury in El Paso alleged Posada lied about how he entered the United States and made false claims on a naturalization application.

He could face 40 years in prison if convicted.

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