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From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.local.florida,clari.world.americas.caribbean,clari.world.americas,clari.world.americas.meso
Subject: US judge postpones decision on US phone fees to Cuba
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qcuba-usURQzD_9FG.RLfN_9FH@clari.net>
Lines: 37
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 17:32:30 PST
ACategory: usa
Slugword: Cuba-US
Threadword: cuba
Priority: urgent
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   MIAMI, Feb 16 (AFP) - A US federal judge on Tuesday postponed a  
decision on whether money to pay 187.6 million dollars to families 
of slain Cuban dissidents should come from Cuban funds frozen in the 
United States or from fees US phone companies pay Havana. 
   Judge James King in 1997 ruled in favor of paying 187.6 million  
dollars to the families of three of the three Cuban Americans and a 
Cuban dissident killed in 1996 when their two US-based planes were 
shot down by the Cuban Air Force. 
   King called a ten-day break before making a decision in the case  
as US State Department Spokesman James Foley warned in Washington 
against the adverse effects of diverting the telephone fees. 
   Washington has filed a brief "to advise the court of the  
important national interests that would be affected if the payments 
owed by US carriers to the Cuban telephone company are garnished," 
Foley said. 
   Cuba, which has allowed eight US companies to establish  
long-distance services between the two countries for a fee, has 
threatened to sever phone connections between the two countries if 
US companies do not pay their debts. 
   "I'm curious as to how this is a national security problem, when  
the government has left twisting in the wind" six billion dollars in 
claims stemming from nationalizations by Cuba for 40 years, King 
commented. 
   "I just wondered how long we should wait," he added.  
   The US Treasury Department specially licensed US phone payments  
after the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act authorized restoration of direct 
telecommunications services between the two countries. 
   Foley said US telecommunication payments were immune from  
garnishment because the Cuban telephone company was separate from 
and not legally responsible for the debts of the Cuban Air Force, 
against whom the judgment was rendered. 
   And the specially licensed payments to the Cuban phone company  
were immune from garnishment under the treasury department's Cuban 
Assets Control Regulations, he added. 
  	   	

