2nd Life Sentence in Cuba Spy Case

MIAMI — A second member of a Cuban spy ring was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for trying to penetrate U.S. military bases.

Ramon Labanino, a 38-year-old Cuban intelligence officer, was sentenced a day after the ringleader received the same punishment.

Labanino was one of five men convicted in June on espionage-related charges. Prosecutors said the agents never obtained classified information.

Labanino’s attorney, William Norris, argued that the life sentence was not justified because nothing Labanino did threatened U.S. security.

But U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said the intent “was to acquire top-secret information that, if it were disclosed, would cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”

The ringleader, Gerardo Hernandez, 36, was also convicted of complicity in the deaths of four Cuban Americans whose private planes were shot down by Cuban MIG fighters in 1996.

Labanino, under FBI surveillance for two years, was videotaped exchanging packages with a Cuban U.N. diplomat in a fast-food restaurant restroom in New York.

The three other men convicted in the case are scheduled for sentencing later this month.