The judge again denied bail this Monday to Rubén Martínez Machado, the Cuban pilot who landed in Florida on October 21 after fleeing Cuba in a Russian-made Antonov aircraft, so he will remain in jail.
According to Eduardo Soto, the 29-year-old’s lawyer, in statements to América TeVé, the Prosecutor’s Office was not ready, again, to present his case. In addition, he said that “they will study the consequences of this judicial decision to take the next steps.”
The pilot had Last monday his first appearance before the Immigration court in Pompano Beach, Florida, which decided to keep him in the Broward County detention center at least until the hearing this Monday, when he repeated the verdict.
The Cuban entered the United States on Friday, October 21, 2022 by air aboard an AN-2 single-engine plane, in which he landed at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, located in the middle of the Everglades.
The pilot had his first appearance last Monday before the Immigration Court of Pompano Beach, Florida, which decided to keep him in the Broward County detention center.
Last week, relatives of Martínez Machado lamented in the US media that if “he sets foot in Cuba, he will never see the sun again.”
The young man was a pilot for the Cuban Air Services Company, belonging to the Cuban Aviation Corporation, and left the island via Sancti Spíritus. Shortly after, he took a selfie next to the plane upon arrival at Florida’s Dade-Collier Transition and Training Airport.
Customs agents questioned the pilot as soon as he landed and he was immediately taken into the custody of the authorities, who later took him to the prison where he is being held.
“In the case of Mr. Martínez, they have put him directly before an Immigration judge and he will have the right to request asylum without the need to establish a credible fear,” his lawyer told the Miami press those days.
The pilot is accused of illegal entry into the United States and air piracy in Cuba.
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