By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard yesterday questioned whether Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell “misled” parliamentarians when he said two Cuban men recently released from prison posed risks to national security.

Mr Pintard called on Mr Mitchell to validate his claims against the Cuban men and provide an explanation for his apparent turnaround from his earlier request to Cabinet for their release.

He pointed to an article The Tribune published on Tuesday, which said that the men were now working in South Florida. He said this suggests that the men did not appear to be considered as threats by US officials.

Mr Pintard said: “The public is still waiting to hear the minister’s explanation for seeking to have the men released into the general population in November and then branding them a national security threat approximately three months later once they won their freedom.

“Minister Mitchell claimed that he had corresponded with US officials about the possibility of the US accepting them, which they declined to do. The clear insinuation was that the refusal was based on their alleged criminal records in the US.

“Did the minister in fact have documented conversations and or communications with the US government about the Cubans and got definitive word that the Americans were unwilling to accept the Cubans into the United States? Furthermore, can he provide documented evidence that the Cubans were convicted of serious crimes in the United States? It appears that they are not seen as national security threats by US officials.”

Carlos Pupo Mendoza and Lazaro Seara Marin were said to be living and working in South Florida, when The Tribune contacted the pair this week.

Mr Mendoza now has a driver’s licence and is working in construction while Mr Marin is working at a golf course, The Tribune was told. The pair said they feared for their lives after they were labelled a national security risk by Mr Mitchell.

On February 18, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Isaacs ruled that they had been unlawfully detained in prison for three years. The next day, Mr Mitchell announced that an investigation had been launched into why the Supreme Court was persuaded to free them. Mr Mitchell said that the men posed a risk to the country’s national security. His statement was a turnaround from a Cabinet memorandum he wrote on November 13, 2015, in which he sought Cabinet approval for their release on parole into the Bahamian population.

In that memo, Mr Mitchell wrote that the men were residents of the United States, both with criminal records, which meant they continued to be denied eligibility to return. He further said that their criminal record would be a barrier to their resettlement in other countries due to the policy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on persons with criminal records.

Last month, Prime Minister Perry Christie told the House of Assembly that the government “was caught between a rock and a hard place” as it unsuccessfully petitioned several countries to accept the men during their nearly three year imprisonment in the Bahamas.

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

Yesterday, Mr Pintard said that the FNM was sworn to protect the country’s sovereignty and border integrity; however, he said it would not do so in a manner that would mislead Parliament.