Almost three decades after hijacking a plane to Cuba in 1984 and serving 13 years in jail for it, William Potts wants to go home to face US charges
William Potts burned with a desire to change the world, but nothing really turned out the way he planned.
Dreaming of helping the struggle to uproot global oppression, he dropped out of college, became a Muslim and went to join the Namibian freedom movement. However, he got stuck in Liberia, half a continent away.
So he returned to the United States and, in 1984, concealed a .25-calibre pistol in a plaster cast and hijacked a plane to Cuba, among the last in a flood of dozens of self-styled revolutionary hijackings. To Potts's surprise, Cuban authorities didn't offer him guerrilla training. He was convicted of air piracy and imprisoned for more than 13 years.
Now, 29 years after he changed into a black beret and leather jacket in a toilet mid-flight and hijacked the plane carrying more than 100 people from Newark to Miami, Potts is optimistic that he will soon be heading home. He said on Friday that US officials in Cuba were processing a passport application he submitted earlier in the week and they had told him it could be completed in a matter of weeks.
While he faces virtually certain arrest upon his return, he believes that the time he has served in Cuba will allow him to avoid a lengthy second jail term.
"Some people believe I should spend the rest of my life behind bars, but that's not my position. I was sentenced in a recognised court of law to 15 years in prison. I did the crime, I did the time," Potts said. "I don't expect to pay two times for a crime I already paid 15 years for."
Potts said going home would help him move beyond what he has acknowledged was a mistake that put dozens of passengers' lives at risk and separated him from his family in the US in a way that has become increasingly painful as he has aged.
Prosecutors in Florida, where Potts was also indicted for air piracy, did not respond to requests for comments on his case. The US Interests Section in Cuba declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but noted that "through our missions overseas, US citizens travelling or residing overseas are accorded a full range of passport services".
Cuba has granted political refugee status, along with free housing, healthcare and other benefits, to dozens of fugitives like Potts – many of them black militants and other leftists who fled to the island from the US in the 60s and 70s. Many are believed to remain in Cuba, including several who are among the United States' most-wanted fugitives.
The US and Cuba signed a 1971 agreement under which each government agreed to prosecute hijackers or return them to the other country. Periodic tensions with Washington have pushed Cuba to suspend the deal several times, but the communist government stopped giving new arrivals sanctuary in 2006, returning a handful Americans who fled to avoid prosecution in recent years. The US still labels Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, largely because of its sheltering fugitives.
"They accuse Cuba of harbouring terrorists," Potts said. "I happen to be a terrorist who wants to go back to face the charges pending against me."
Potts, 56, said he was buoyed by the case of a fellow hijacker who returned to the US and saw a long sentence reduced because of time served in Cuba.
However, it is far from clear if Potts has correctly assessed his legal options.
Other fugitives returning from Cuba have been aggressively prosecuted. US citizen Luis Armando Peña Soltren returned from Cuba in October 2009 to face charges of conspiracy to commit air piracy, interfering with a flight crew and kidnapping in a case linked to Puerto Rican independence militants.
Peña Soltren pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Potts lives in a modest two-bedroom apartment with a neatly kept front garden in a cold war-era apartment block on the outskirts of Havana. He is divorced from the mother of his two children, a mathematics professor, but they still live together. The US Interests Section in Cuba gave passports to their daughters, aged 12 and nine, last year and Potts sent them to live with his family in the Atlanta area.
He said he was still hopeful about changing the world, even though his previous attempts went wrong. He is now hoping to raise money in the US to start a Muslim community farm in Cuba.
"I'm not the same person I was," Potts said. "The time has come to bring this thing to an end. I know it's a risk (to go back to the US), but it's a necessary risk. I'm hoping that something good can come of this."
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário