Wife Of Man Held In Cuba Thankful He’s Alive Witness To His Subversion Trial Says Proceedings Are Shoddy

The wife of an American jailed in Cuba on subversion charges said Saturday she’s happy he is alive and hopeful he’ll be cleared.

“I thank God because my husband is alive and they didn’t put him in front of a firing squad,” Nancy Vazquez Van der Veer said. “I would have thought he would be dead by now.”

She and the team of lawyers who tried unsuccessfully to represent Walter Van der Veer held a news conference Saturday after one of them returned from Havana.

Dominick Salfi, former prosecutor and circuit judge, was the only member of the team allowed into Cuba, and he was only permitted to observe.

Van der Veer, 52, of Miami, was arrested in August 1996. He is charged with crimes against state security - gathering materials for Molotov cocktails and plotting attacks against police and tourists.

Cuban officials claim Van der Veer distributed anti-government leaflets during an earlier visit to Havana and was carrying a commando knife and U.S. military garb when he was arrested.

Five judges, including three lay people, will decide Van der Veer’s fate after a one-day trial in which the defense did not call one witness or make a single objection. The verdict should come within 20 days.

Salfi, who observed the trial Thursday, said the proceedings fell far short of American legal standards. He was not allowed to talk to Van der Veer or his attorney. Salfi also did not get a promised interpreter until halfway through the trial.

He said Van der Veer appeared thin, pale and weak. When Van der Veer addressed the court, he denied ever planning to hurt anyone and refuted the charges against him.

“He went down there because he wanted to be with the Cuban people and understand them,” Salfi said.

Attorney Ellis Rubin said Van der Veer was a member of the Cuban-exile militant group that disbanded. But he said Van der Veer was in Cuba on a humanitarian mission to distribute toys, Bibles and school supplies.