Cuba Will Not Return Assata Shakur to US [View all]

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27673-cuba-will-not-return-assata-shakur-to-us

Cuba delivered a blow late Monday to federal and state authorities who had hoped Assata Shakur, the famously exiled Black Liberation Army member, would be extradited back to the United States, vowing that the fugitive has “legitimately” earned political asylum.

Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s foreign ministry head of North American affairs, told the Associated Press that the communist nation would not return Shakur despite public requests to do so from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and acting state Attorney General John Hoffman. Both Christie’s and Hoffman’s requests came after diplomatic relations between the countries opened last week for the first time in 54 years.

“We’ve explained to the U.S. government in the past that there are some people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately granted political asylum,” Vidal said. “There’s no extradition treaty in effect between Cuba and the U.S.”


Born Joanne Chesimard, the now 67-year-old Shakur has spent more than three decades away from America to become one of the more intriguing exile figures in the world. A member of the Black Liberation Army, Shakur, along with other members of the group, was involved in a shootout with officers on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.

The gunfight led to the death of state trooper Werner Foerster and to the death of one BLA member. In 1977, a jury convicted Shakur of first degree murder for being an accomplice in Foerster’s killing, among other charges, and she was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in prison. That despite the fact that Foerster’s partner James Harper admitted under cross examination at trial that he lied in his original report stating Shakur opened fire on the slain officer. Medical evidence further indicated Shakur had her arms raised, supporting her story that she was trying to escape rather than shoot.