Florida brings more charges against former Cuba president Raul Castro

For­mer Cuban Pres­i­dent Raúl Cas­tro is fac­ing more charges in Flori­da re­lat­ed to the 1996 down­ing of civil­ian planes flown by Mi­a­mi-based ex­iles af­ter the U.S. gov­ern­ment in­dict­ed the for­mer leader ear­li­er this year.

Flori­da At­tor­ney Gen­er­al James Uth­meier on Mon­day ac­cused Cas­tro, 95, of di­rect­ing spies to in­fil­trate that the ex­ile group Broth­ers to the Res­cue and or­der­ing the at­tack on their planes. The state charge of con­spir­a­cy to com­mit first-de­gree mur­der is based large­ly on a fed­er­al in­dict­ment an­nounced in May that in­clud­ed charges of mur­der and de­struc­tion of an air­plane.

It re­mains un­clear whether Cas­tro will ever step foot in a U.S. court­room. Uth­meier said the ar­rest war­rant will re­strict Cas­tro’s abil­i­ty leave the is­land na­tion and pre­vent him from trav­el­ing to any place with an ex­tra­di­tion agree­ment with the U.S.