Ex-Cuban President Raúl Castro has been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two civilian planes that killed four U.S. nationals, according to a newly unsealed federal case in Miami.
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida in April and unsealed on Wednesday, charges Castro with one count of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, four counts of murder, and two counts of destruction of aircraft.
Prosecutors say the case centers on a Feb. 24, 1996, incident in which Cuban Air Force jets shot down two Cessna aircraft belonging to the Miami-based exile and humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue over international waters between Cuba and Florida, according to Fox News.
The shootdown killed four men on board, all of whom were U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals flying on a mission for the group.
According to the Justice Department, Castro, then Cuba's defense minister, is accused of participating in and directing a conspiracy that led Cuban military pilots flying Russian-made MiG fighters to fire missiles at the unarmed planes.
The indictment alleges that Castro and five co-defendants coordinated military responses to Brothers to the Rescue flights after the group repeatedly flew missions near or into Cuban airspace, dropping leaflets urging Cubans to oppose the communist government.
U.S. officials and Congress have long maintained that the planes were outside Cuban territorial airspace when they were destroyed, CBS News reported.
The four victims are identified in court filings and U.S. government records as Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales, who were flying in the two Cessnas when they were shot down.
Brothers to the Rescue, founded in the early 1990s, had gained prominence for missions to locate and assist Cuban rafters in the Florida Straits and later for high-profile leaflet drops over Havana.
The incident prompted swift U.S. condemnation and led then-President Bill Clinton to sign the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, commonly known as the Helms–Burton Act, which tightened sanctions on Havana.
U.S. authorities have not said whether they expect Castro, now in his mid-90s and living in Cuba, to be taken into custody, as per NPR.
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