A US judge sentenced six Cuban men to prison terms of 20 years or more last night for hijacking a Cuban airliner last year.
The Cubans were convicted in December of air piracy for commandeering a 1940s-era Aerotaxi DC-3 after it took off from Cuba 's Isle of Youth and forcing it to Key West on Florida's southern tip on March 19, 2003. The incident was the first in a series of hijackings in Cuba last year.
US District Judge James Lawrence King sentenced Alexis Norneilla Morales, the leader of the hijack plot, and his brother, Miakel Guerra Morales, to 24 years and four months in prison.
The other four, Eduardo Javier Mejia Morales, Yainer Olivares Samon, Neudis Infantes Hernandez and Alvenis Arias Izquierdo, were sentenced to 20 years each, the mandatory minimum for air piracy. All could have faced life in prison.
At the trial in Key West, prosecutors said the six men forced the DC-3's crew at knifepoint to fly to the United States, endangering the lives of everyone on board. Defence attorneys argued the hijacking was a flight to freedom from President Fidel Castro's Cuba and said the crew went along with the hijacking.
Fourteen of the 37 people on board asked to stay in the United States when the plane landed but the flight crew returned to Cuba .