By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Immigration Department wants to apprehend two Cuban men who have no legal status in The Bahamas, but who were released from prison under a Supreme Court justice’s order last week, Immigration Director William Pratt said yesterday.

He told The Tribune that he has been informed by a credible source that the men were last spotted in Bimini.

His statement came as Wayne Munroe, the lawyer who represents several Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) marines accused of beating one of the Cuban men in 2013, questioned why the Supreme Court released the men without deferring their matter to the Immigration Department. However, Mr Munroe admitted he needed to see the justice’s judgment to reach a definitive conclusion on the ruling.

Carlos Pupo and Lazaro Seara Marin were released from prison after they spent three years behind bars, without being charged, while the government tried to convince another country to accept them.

“I was told yesterday that they were spotted in Bimini,” Mr Pratt said. “I have the police assisting to identify and see if they are still there. We have to try and re-arrest them. We’re sending photos and stuff to see if the public knows their whereabouts.”

“Locating them is the issue,” he continued. “We knew from day one that their objective was to get back to the US.”

After the men were released, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell called them national security risks, however he has not specified what these risks are.

When pressed on this point, Mr Pratt said he would not be comfortable signing an order giving the men status to remain in the country and raised concerns about the alleged activities the Cubans have been accused of committing.

Mr Pratt also cited their attempts to burn down the Carmichael Road Detention Centre in 2013 as reason to believe they are counterproductive to this country’s interests.

With respect to the ruling that allowed the men to be released from prison, Mr Munroe said it is unusual for justices to release people from prison who don’t have status to be in the Bahamas, adding that it is of no relevance that the Office of the Attorney General declined to oppose the application seeking to have the Cubans freed.

“The first thing any judge, even when granting bail, must determine before they release you is where you are going to be,” Mr Munroe said. “If you’re in the Bahamas, what status do you have to be in the Bahamas? If you have no status, a judge definitely cannot make an order saying you are to be released in the Bahamas because they do not have that kind of power, which is an executive power exercised by the Immigration Department.”

While officials have declined to elaborate on what national security threat the two Cubans pose to this country, Mr Munroe called on people to put “two and two together” about why the United States, Cuba and other countries are unwilling to accept them.

On Wednesday in the House of Assembly, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government “was caught between a rock and a hard place” as it petitioned several countries to accept the men during their imprisonment.

These countries included the United States, Cuba, Panama and Sweden.

Mr Mitchell said on Wednesday that Mr Marin has a criminal record in the US, which has hindered his re-entry to that country and he has not been allowed to return to Cuba.

According to Mr Mitchell, Mr Pupo was arrested in May 2013 in Abaco and charged with illegal entry. He was fined $300, which he paid, and was set to be repatriated to the US, however the US later withdrew support for his entry.

He and Mr Marin were both in the Detention Centre before being transferred to prison in 2013. Officials have previously said they were transferred for safety reasons.

Five marines have been accused of abusing a group of Cubans at the Detention Centre in 2013. A RBDF hearing into the allegations has been ongoing since 2013. According to reports, final submissions were heard in January and a RBDF captain is expected to deliver a ruling on the matter.