Miami Five man freed

His four fellow inmates remain in jail and judges have denied Mr Gonzalez's request to return to his family in Cuba, saying he must serve three years' probation in the US first.

But his wife Olga Salanueva said if he remained in the US "his life would be in danger."

Miami-based terrorist organisations have killed almost 3,500 Cubans over the last four decades, including in the October 6 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in which 78 people died.

The US still harbours Luis Posada Carriles, who was heavily implicated in that bombing, and various anti-Cuban terror groups remain active there.

The Miami Five have always denied US espionage accusations and maintained that they were monitoring such groups to help prevent further terrorist atrocities.

Assistant US attorney Caroline Heck Miller said Mr Gonzalez could not return to Cuba "because he might resume his spy career."

Ms Salanueva said her husband's release would "alert people's attention" and raise the prospect of his assassination by right wingers while he remained in the US.

"If they say Rene is a danger to that society - well, he's no danger to ours," she said. "The logical thing is to send him home."

And Cuban daily Granma said the probation constituted "a deliberate additional penalty motivated by the same desires for political revenge which characterised the conviction of the five in 2001."

And even anti-Cuban extremist group Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto said Mr Gonzalez should be sent home.

"If anything were to happen to him, I know we will be blamed," Mr Basulto said.

The Miami Five went to the US to report on the activities of groups involved in terror attacks on Cuba in the 1990s.

At the US's request the Cuban government passed on their findings to the FBI in 1998 but authorities used the information to arrest the five.

Their trial, which began in 2000, took place in Miami where the right-wing Cuban exile community holds significant influence.

It also sparked allegations of serious procedural flaws and rights organisations including Amnesty International have long called for a retrial.

benchacko@peoples-press.com