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Executed nine days after the offence
Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla Garcia and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac were shot by firing squad in Cuba on Friday 11th April 2003.
Eight others received prison sentences: Maikel Delgado Aramburo (life), Yoanny Thomas Gonzalez (life), Harold Alcala Aramburo (life), Ramon Henry Grillo (life), Wilmer Ledea Perez (30 years), Ana Rosa Ledea Rios (5 years), Yolanda Pando Rizo (3 years) and Dania Rojas Gongora (2 years).
The group seized the ferry in Havana Bay in the earlier hours of Wednesday 2nd April with about 50 people aboard. The captain was ordered to sail to the United States.
Later that day, the ferry ran out of fuel in the high seas of the Florida Straits, and officers on the two Cuban Coast Guard patrol boats that chased them there tried to persuade the hijackers to return to Cuba's Mariel port for refueling. After the boat was docked in Mariel, west of Havana, Cuban authorities last week eventually gained control of the ferry.
According to CBS News "The speed and severity of the punishment underscored Cuba's growing alarm and frustration over a string of successful and attempted hijackings that it blames on what it believes is a lax attitude by American authorities toward hijackers who reach American shores."
Source: Cuba Executes Ferry Hijackers (CBS News, 11 Apr 2003)
Other: Pope condemns execution of hijackers (Ananova, 26 Apr 2003)
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