The news of President Obama’s decision to embrace the Castro regime after decades of human rights abuses, including the harboring of fugitives and stymieing U.S. government efforts to extradite Joanne Chesimard, the convicted murderer of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and other fugitives, is disappointing in light of the long record of human rights violations of Fidel Castro and Raul Castro, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) said today.

    “

While we all welcome the return of Alan Gross to his family and to freedom, it is outrageous that President Obama chose to link the despicable jailing and long-delayed release of this humanitarian with a trade for three spies convicted of espionage against the United States, including Gerardo Hernandez, who also conspired to commit murder

,” said Smith, chairman of the House panel that oversees international global human rights. “

Additionally, the President has announced plans to normalize relations with the Cuban dictatorship while he ignores the fact that the Castro brothers continue to harbor convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, a murderer who gunned down New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in cold blood, shooting him twice in the head while he lay on the ground wounded

.

    “

The Obama Administration’s capitulation to the Castro brothers’ tyranny, as in the case of Bowe Bergdahl, once again sends a most dangerous message to terrorists around the world: if you take an American hostage, we will release dangerous criminals, be they spies like the Cuban Five, or Taliban jihadists

.

    “

Rather than bringing the Cuban people closer to democracy and freedom, by pandering to the Castro brothers, Obama allows them to strengthen their grip on the Cuban people

.

    “

Just as with countries like China, President Obama continues to demonstrate a pattern of indifference to, and gross enabling of, human rights abuses. The Castro brothers should be tried at The Hague for their brutal crimes against humanity—including mass murder, torture and unjust incarceration

.”

    Smith and Rep. Albio Sires (NJ-08) unveiled the

“Walter Patterson and Werner Foerster Justice and Extradition Act

” (H.R. 3585) in 2013. The bill, sponsored by Smith, would require the executive branch to report to Congress on the number of fugitives in Cuba and other countries which our government is seeking to extradite, the efforts it has undertaken to secure their return, how often it is successful, and factors that have prevented their return. The information would allow Congress to evaluate and strengthen the executive branch’s efforts to extradite fugitives.

    The bill is also named after Walter Patterson who was also brutally murdered by a killer who had been convicted, escaped prison and simply moved abroad beyond the reach of U.S. justice.

    For years Smith has been active in advocating for Cuban political prisoners, including Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet, M.D., a courageous human rights advocate who has spent over 11 years in jail. Biscet testified via telephone at a

hearing chaired by Smith in 2012

. Smith nominated Biscet for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 and again in 2011, when he led an international movement nominating him. Shortly after the nominations were made, Biscet was released. He remains in Cuba, today. It was reported he was beaten and shortly detained earlier this year.

            In 2001, Smith offered an amendment to pressure the Cuban government to return fugitives killers, including Chesimard, as well as release political prisoners languishing in Cuban prisons. The amendment would have required that before the U.S. allows unrestricted leisure travel to Cuba, the Castro regime return fugitive killers living in Cuba, and that political prisoners be released.

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