US frees Cuban agent accused of spying in 1998: lawyer

The first of five Cuban agents jailed since 1998 in the United States on spy charges was freed from a prison in Florida on Friday, his lawyer told AFP.

Rene Gonzalez "was released earlier today," said attorney Philip Horowitz, who did not provide details about where his client was headed.

The 55-year-old Cuban national must remain on US soil for three years as part of a "supervised release" program -- a requirement that has infuriated Havana, which considers Gonzalez a national hero.

The planned release has also angered US opponents of Cuba's communist government, like Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who has called Gonzalez a "villain."

In February Gonzalez asked to be allowed to return to Cuba to be reunited with his wife and two daughters, but Judge Joan Lenard of the US district court for southern Florida rejected the request last month.

Horowitz said his client can serve out the three years anywhere in the United States -- so he can leave Miami, a bastion of the Cuban exile community.

There will be "no further statements that I am aware of," the lawyer said.

Havana has acknowledged that the five Cubans were spies, but said their aim was not to spy on the US government but solely to gather information on "terrorist" plots by Cuban expatriates in Florida.

Gonzalez, whose 15-year sentence was the lightest received by the five agents, was arrested in 1998 with Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, and convicted on espionage charges in Miami in 2001.

On appeal, the life sentence handed down against Labanino was reduced to 30 years. Guerrero had his life sentence shortened to 22 years. Fernando Gonzalez's sentence was pared from 19 to 18 years. But Hernandez is serving two life sentences plus 15 years.