HAVANA (AP) -- A Salvadoran man who confessed to a string of hotel bombings has been convicted of terrorism and sentenced to die by a Cuban tribunal, the government announced Tuesday.
Under Cuban law, the death sentence of Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon will be immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, the Communist Party daily Granma said in a three-paragraph story in Tuesday's edition.The verdict in the trial of a second Salvadoran charged with terrorism, Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, is pending. The prosecution also has recommended the death penalty in his case.
During Cruz Leon's trial, prosecutors sought to show that leaders of the Miami-based Cuban-American National Foundation recruited and paid Cruz Leon to plant bombs at six tourist locales. The blasts killed an Italian man and injured 11 people, including seven foreigners.
Before closing arguments, prosecutors showed a video from a television interview in which a member of the Cuban exile group, Luis Posada Carriles, admitted Cruz Leon was contracted by members of the exile organization.