Denied by the Judge Lenard Rene’s motion on his return to Cuba

This 16th day of September, 2011, Joan A. Lenard, US District Judge denied Rene Gonzalez’s Motion to Modify Conditions of Supervised Release (“Motion,” D.E. 1808), filed on February 16, 2011. On March 7, 2011, the Government filed its response in opposition (“Response,” D.E. 1814), to which Defendant filed his reply (“Reply,” D.E. 1817), on March 25, 2011.

In the motion Rene sought to modify the conditions of his supervised release such that he be permitted to travel to and reside in Cuba, rather than serve his term (3 years) of supervised release in the United States after his release of prison next October 7.

The Judge found that Defendant’s Motion is premature because a term of supervised release does not commence until an individual is “released from imprisonment”, and some amount of time on supervised release needs to pass before the Court is able to properly evaluate the characteristics of the defendant once he or she has been released from prison.

Rene was sentenced to 15 years in prison plus a three-year term of supervised release which includes a certain special condition prohibiting him “from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, organized crime figures are known to be or frequent,” which is reiterated in the Judge’s decision.

What will happen then from October 7? Will the FBI agents arrest the terrorists in the places where they know “they are or frequent”? Or will they devote to watch Rene to guarantee that he does not bother the terrorists?