US jails Cuban plane hijacker

Wilson claimed he had live grenades and would blow up the plane

A Cuban man who hijacked a domestic passenger flight and forced it to fly to the United States earlier this year has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a judge in Miami, Florida.

Adermis Wilson Gonzalez, 34, used fake grenades to seize control of the plane on 1 April and forced it to fly to Key West, Florida, where he subsequently surrendered to police.

Accompanying Wilson on the flight were his common-law wife and three-year-old son - both of whom have been allowed to settle in the US.

The day after Wilson commandeered the Cuban Airlines flight with 46 passengers and five crew on board, three other Cubans who attempted to reach the US by hijacking a ferry were executed in the Cuban capital Havana.

Refuelling stop

Wilson and his family boarded the flight on the Isle of Youth, off the southern coast of Cuba.

Shortly after take-off he assembled his fake grenades, made from painted ceramics, using pins in his wife's hair, and announced that he was carrying live grenades and would blow up the plane unless it was re-routed to America.

The plane did not have sufficient fuel to make the trip, so after an short standoff in Havana, when a number of passengers were released unharmed, it took off once more.

When it finally arrived in Key West, with 31 people on board, the remaining passengers were also released and Wilson was arrested.

He was found guilty of air piracy in July.

Wilson's defence lawyers tried unsuccessfully to argue that the US had no jurisdiction because the crime occurred in Cuba.

Asylum policy

The flight Wilson hijacked was on the same route as a plane successfully diverted to Florida by six hijackers armed with knives two weeks earlier.

The six are awaiting trial in the US on air piracy charges.

The Cuban authorities say the US encourages potential hijackers by tending to give automatic asylum to those Cubans who make it to the US.

"The entire responsibility of what could happen [in the latest hijack attempt] will fall on the government of that country," a statement by Cuban officials said of the US.

The US State Department denies that US law encourages hijackings.

"It is clear that Cubans seek to flee Cuba because they lack political and economic freedom... It's not US law which encourages this," an official said.